From the Economist: The Vigilant Belgian Police

[Guy Berger]

I deleted the political stuff from this article, but there's plenty of humorous stuff left.

ARE you glum about brashly commercial holiday seasons? Annoyed when winter sales start earlier every year? Then Charlemagne has the place for you. Pick the right European country, and no sales pitches need disrupt your festive cheer. Try France, where sales will by law begin only on January 9th. Or Belgium: not only are sales banned before January 3rd but, under "pre-sales" rules, for six weeks beforehand shops cannot announce price reductions, lest somebody jumps the gun. During the twice-yearly pre-sales blackouts (there are also summer sales) a hundred inspectors from the Belgian economics ministry scour the country for advertisements, window stickers or price tags that even hint at discounts. A Prohibition-style speakeasy culture has sprung up in response. Gambits include putting question-marks on price tags and advertising "friendly prices". Chic boutiques in Brussels telephone favoured customers or send them "privilege cards", inviting them to pop in for an early visit. Controls must be "extremely severe" to ensure that the rules stick, explains Robert Geurts of the economics ministry, who glories in the title of director-general for regulation and organisation of the market. Inspectors receive many tips by telephone as rival shopkeepers denounce each other.

...Belgian parliamentary papers from the late 1960s describe indignantly how some shops "deliberately" sell products at a loss to attract customers who might buy other goods at full price, a ploy referred to as "destructive" competition. Such loss-leaders were banned in Belgium in 1971, along with any selling below cost or at "extremely reduced" profit margins. This has kept the lawyers busy as the courts argue over what extremely reduced might mean. And that is why sales in Belgium are such a big deal: though offering discounts is legal at other times of the year, the sales are the only time when Belgian shopkeepers may sell goods at a loss.

In Belgium, you cannot even tell customers to "buy one and get one free", as the maximum discount for multiple sales is 33%, or buy two and get a third thrown in. And sales are reserved for the "seasonal renewal" of stock. That means no goods may be specially bought in for the sales, and things deemed non-seasonal may not be put in sales. Cue more court cases: judges have established that sofas are seasonal but antiques are not...