The 30-Day Lowest Price Rule for Marketplace Discounts
What the 30-day lowest price rule means for marketplace discounts, how to set a compliant strikethrough price, and a pre-sale price history checklist.
The 30-day lowest price rule says that the strikethrough "was" price on a discounted product must be the lowest price you charged for it in the 30 days before the discount started. Raising a price a few days before a sale and then advertising "40% off" from that price breaks the rule. In the EU it is part of the price indication rules updated by the Omnibus Directive, Turkey applies the same principle to unfair commercial practices, and marketplaces run their own checks on promotion entries. This guide shows a multichannel seller how to keep price history and announce discounts with confidence.
This article is not legal advice. For scope, exceptions and penalties, check current legislation in each market, the marketplace's promotion terms and, where needed, your legal adviser.
Why the rule exists and what it means for sellers
A discount is worth exactly the gap between the two numbers a shopper sees. If the old price was never real, neither is the discount. Regulators therefore tied the reference price to a fixed point: the lowest price of the last 30 days.
For a seller this has three consequences:
- Promotion planning starts with price history. The discount you can advertise depends on what you charged on that channel over the past month.
- Flash deals count. A two-day deal in mid-month becomes the reference for your next promotion.
- Each channel has its own history. If your price on Amazon.de differs from your price on Allegro or Trendyol, each channel has its own reference.
Marketplaces add their own layer. Some require promotion prices to beat your recent lowest price; others calculate the strikethrough price from their own records. These policies change often, so read the marketplace's current announcement before every promotion entry.
The multichannel problem: scattered price history
With one webshop, price history lives in that shop's records. With five marketplaces, it does not:
- Prices change by hand, by bulk upload and by automated repricing.
- Repricing rules can move a price several times a day, so the lowest point may have happened at an hour nobody remembers.
- During marketplace-funded promotions, the listing price can differ from the price in your own panel.
- Your ERP list price is often not the selling price on any channel.
So "what was our lowest price in the last 30 days?" has five answers in five formats. Collecting them by hand two days before a sale is slow and error-prone. If you use price sync and repricing, prices move even more often and recording history stops being optional.
How to set a compliant strikethrough price
The logic is simple; the execution needs discipline. For every product and every channel:
- Fix the promotion start date. The 30-day window counts back from it.
- Pull the channel's price history. Use the selling price the shopper saw on the listing, not the list price.
- Find the lowest price inside the window. Include short deals and weekend offers.
- Record that number as the reference price. The strikethrough price must not be higher.
- Calculate the discount against the reference. If you advertise "30% off", the percentage must hold against that number.
- Compare the sale price with your floor price. If it falls below your floor price rule, skip that product or lower the discount.
- Document the decision. Keep a record of which reference you used for which price on which date, so you can produce it if asked.
Past a few dozen products and a couple of channels, these seven steps no longer work by hand. You need a system that keeps price history automatically.
Common mistakes before a sale
Most of these come from scattered processes, not bad intent:
- A price rise just before the sale. Costs went up, you updated the price, and two weeks later you joined a promotion. The rise may be legitimate, but the earlier lower price remains the reference for 30 days.
- Showing the ERP list price as the old price. A price that was never charged cannot be a reference.
- Borrowing another channel's price. Using a higher price from one marketplace as the "was" price on another is misleading.
- Forgetting the repricing low. If an automated rule dropped the price overnight to match a competitor, that number is now in your history.
- A bad bulk upload. A file loaded with the wrong column can show very low prices for a few hours, and that brief moment also resets the reference. The checks in price not updating on a marketplace help catch such slips early.
The shared fix for the last two is a brake on price changes: drops beyond a set threshold should go to approval instead of being applied automatically.
Put price history into your promotion calendar
Year-end promotions sit close together. An early-November deal pulls down the reference price for the big event at the end of the month. You need to see that at the planning stage.
A practical approach:
- Draft the promotion calendar at least two months ahead.
- For each event, ask which reference price will apply on that date.
- Position interim deals so they do not undercut the main event's reference, or choose their depth accordingly.
- Keep cost-driven increases outside promotion windows.
Stock and pricing during sales events covers the day itself, and the peak season and year-end checklist covers the weeks before. Add the price history check to the pricing step of that checklist.
How it works with Bulutegra
Bulutegra runs 24 marketplaces and 47 integrations in total from one Integration Panel, and prices go out to channels from there. Price history is kept per channel, and the lowest price of the last 30 days is visible per product, so setting a strikethrough price needs no manual digging. The price matrix shows list, selling and floor price per channel side by side, and the campaign calculator shows each channel's contribution at the sale price before you commit.
Price sync includes an excessive-deviation brake, a per-run limit and a bulk-drop brake, so a faulty file or rule cannot pull prices down all at once. Every price and stock update sent to a marketplace is logged line by line and can be exported as a report to share with the marketplace, so the question "why did you show this price on this date?" already has an answer. Bulutegra keeps the records; the discount decision and legal compliance remain the seller's responsibility.
To review your price history before the November sales, request a demo or explore the pricing modules under Solutions.
Frequently asked questions
What is the 30-day lowest price rule?
When you announce a price reduction, the "was" price you show must be the lowest price you applied to that product in the 30 days before the reduction. The rule exists to stop sellers inflating a price just before a sale and then advertising a discount from it. The EU sets it out in its price indication rules and Turkey applies a similar principle; check current law and each marketplace's promotion terms for details and exceptions.
Is it illegal to raise prices before a sale?
Raising a price is not a problem in itself. The problem is presenting that raised price as the starting point of a discount shortly afterwards. If you sold at a lower price within the previous 30 days, that lower price is your reference. Plan cost-driven price increases well outside your promotion windows, or accept a smaller advertised discount.
If I sell on several marketplaces, is the 30-day price per channel?
A discount is judged against the price history on the channel where it is shown, so you need history per channel. The same product may have sold lower on one marketplace and higher on another. A blended average, or the list price in your ERP, does not reflect what shoppers actually saw on that channel.
