PriceProof · UK sellers
Since the Omnibus Directive, every advertised price reduction in the EU must show the lowest price from the previous 30 days as the “before” price — plus the all-in price (incl. unavoidable fees) up front, no invented reference prices, and no fake countdowns. Check your sale pages in 60 seconds.
🌍 Short answer: Since Brexit, UK businesses are treated as outside-the-EU sellers — so EU rules apply to you whenever you sell into the EU, on top of the UK's own (often closely-related) domestic regime.
Mind the two-tier picture: the UK usually has its own version for your domestic sales (e.g. UK GDPR, UK product-safety rules), while the EU version applies to your EU-facing sales. This page is about the EU rule — check the UK equivalent separately for domestic.
As a UK seller, this rule generally applies once you advertise discounts or sale prices to consumers in the EU or UK and sell to, ship to, or target customers in the EU. Run sales or discounts into the EU? The “before” price must be the lowest from the last 30 days — with no fake urgency, hidden fees or invented reference prices. Not sure? The free checker tells you in about a minute — no signup.
If you're in scope, you need to be able to answer "yes" to each of these — the points sellers most often get caught on:
⚠️ Exposure: fines up to 4% of annual turnover (Omnibus Dir. 2019/2161) — or €2M where turnover is unknown · Status: In force. EU regulators can act against non-EU sellers who reach EU customers.
Compare the penalty for every rule →
Since Brexit, UK businesses are treated as outside-the-EU sellers — so EU rules apply to you whenever you sell into the EU, on top of the UK's own (often closely-related) domestic regime.
Under Article 6a of the Price Indication Directive (added by the Omnibus Directive, applicable from 28 May 2022), when you announce a price reduction you must show — as the reference “before” price — the lowest price you applied to that item in the 30 days before the reduction. It stops traders inflating the reference price to fake a bigger discount.
If you advertise prices and sell to consumers in the EU (or the UK, which has equivalent rules), they apply regardless of where you're based — the test is your customer's location, not yours.
Inflating a “was” price, inventing an RRP you never charged, hiding unavoidable fees until late in checkout (“drip pricing”), and false urgency such as fake countdown timers or untrue “only 2 left” claims — all are misleading practices under the UCPD, on top of the Article 6a prior-price rule.
RuleGoose checks this against the EU Price Indication Directive 98/6/EC (Art. 6a, as amended by Omnibus Dir. (EU) 2019/2161) + the UCPD 2005/29/EC. Read it yourself: EUR-Lex — Directive 98/6/EC (Art. 6a) →
or get one RuleGoose Score across every EU rule that reaches your business.
EU price transparency (Omnibus) is one of several EU rules that can reach a UK business. See the full EU compliance guide for UK sellers →, or read the platform-neutral EU price transparency (Omnibus) guide.
Informational only, not legal advice, and not affiliated with the EU. Territorial scope can be fact-specific — confirm against the cited source. Last reviewed 2026-06-30.