The Hamburg consumer advice center has been collecting complaints about so-called “deceptive packaging” for years. This refers to products for which manufacturers raise the prices, sometimes drastically, without consumers noticing. The trick: While the price per pack is usually kept reasonably constant, the content is reduced. The bottom line is that customers get significantly less for the same money.
In the course of the current general price increases, manufacturers are using the scam particularly massively. The consumer advice center speaks of the trend towards “shrinkflation” – a play on words made up of shrinkage and inflation. Since the beginning of the year alone, consumer advocates have documented 65 “deceptive packages”. Manufacturers usually justify the price increases with increased production costs. It would still be more honest if they didn’t try to conceal this with packaging tricks.
There are certain rules that prohibit too much air in the pack and are intended to ensure that the packaging should also become smaller as the content shrinks. However, these specifications still leave the manufacturers enough leeway for hidden price increases, as the photo series shows. More information on “deceptive packaging” is available from the Consumer Center Hamburg – there you can also report cases that you have found on the shelf yourself.