Re:4.2″ and 7.5″ NFC-powered e-Paper Displays Work without B...
by fraidy-cat on Tuesday March 17, 2020 @03:39PM
(#22609353)
I would hope that electronic price tags make use of some sort of
authentication in order to set the price that they display.
In Norway, where I live, big retailers will often allow you to
pay the price that is shown on the shelf even if their cash register
is returning a different, higher price.
I have personally experienced a difference between shelf price and
cash register price a few times, and in all of the cases where this
happened at a big retailer they allowed me to pay the shelf price.
I actually thought that they were required to do this by law, but
looking into it now I find that it is only a recommendation that
they do so and not something that they are required to do by law.
The Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman (the government-appointed ombudsman
in Norway for consumer affairs [1]) has an article on their website
about this topic [2]. Translated from Norwegian, here is an exceprept
of what they say:
> * Do you have the right to buy the item at the price at which the
item was marked? The Marketing Act does not grant such rights,
and it is disputed to the extent that one has a legal right
on other grounds to demand the purchase of the item at
the shelf price.
> * The stores should still allow the customer to pay a shelf price.
It is the store that made the mistake, and it would be very bad
service to allow for this to negatively affect the customer
who notifies them of the error so that they can correct it.
Anyway, as mentioned you will often be allowed to pay the shelf price
rather than the cash register price when you're at one of the stores
of the larger retailers. So obviously it would be bad for their
business if someone was able to manipulate the price tags without
them noticing it.
In closing I should also note that there are probably limitations
to how big of a difference in price that they would be willing to
accept. In my case it has often been a matter of $20 in difference
at most. So, don't expect that you would be able to pay like $99.50
for something that was supposed to cost $995 or anything like
that, even if the shelf price somehow ended up showing $99.50 :P
And also, any consumer that changed the price-tags of the things
they were buying in order to con the store into selling it to them
at a lower price would see no sympathy from me when they inevitably
eventually got caught for doing so. Remember, kids: Just 'cause it's
technically possible don't mean you are legally allowed to do it. If
you notice a vulnerability in a system I strongly recommend that you
don't touch it and that you at most let them know about it anonymously
unless you have prior written consent to investigate and/or mess with
the electronic systems that belong to other people, businesses or other
kinds of entities.
In Norway, where I live, big retailers will often allow you to pay the price that is shown on the shelf even if their cash register is returning a different, higher price.
I have personally experienced a difference between shelf price and cash register price a few times, and in all of the cases where this happened at a big retailer they allowed me to pay the shelf price.
I actually thought that they were required to do this by law, but looking into it now I find that it is only a recommendation that they do so and not something that they are required to do by law.
The Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman (the government-appointed ombudsman in Norway for consumer affairs [1]) has an article on their website about this topic [2]. Translated from Norwegian, here is an exceprept of what they say:
> * Do you have the right to buy the item at the price at which the item was marked? The Marketing Act does not grant such rights, and it is disputed to the extent that one has a legal right on other grounds to demand the purchase of the item at the shelf price.
> * The stores should still allow the customer to pay a shelf price. It is the store that made the mistake, and it would be very bad service to allow for this to negatively affect the customer who notifies them of the error so that they can correct it.
Anyway, as mentioned you will often be allowed to pay the shelf price rather than the cash register price when you're at one of the stores of the larger retailers. So obviously it would be bad for their business if someone was able to manipulate the price tags without them noticing it.
In closing I should also note that there are probably limitations to how big of a difference in price that they would be willing to accept. In my case it has often been a matter of $20 in difference at most. So, don't expect that you would be able to pay like $99.50 for something that was supposed to cost $995 or anything like that, even if the shelf price somehow ended up showing $99.50 :P
And also, any consumer that changed the price-tags of the things they were buying in order to con the store into selling it to them at a lower price would see no sympathy from me when they inevitably eventually got caught for doing so. Remember, kids: Just 'cause it's technically possible don't mean you are legally allowed to do it. If you notice a vulnerability in a system I strongly recommend that you don't touch it and that you at most let them know about it anonymously unless you have prior written consent to investigate and/or mess with the electronic systems that belong to other people, businesses or other kinds of entities.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Consumer_Ombudsman
[2]: https://www.forbrukertilsynet.no/regler-for-prismerking-buti...