Thai restaurant rapped for misleading 'limited period' promotion that lasted two years

SINGAPORE — Charcoal Thai 1 restaurant began promoting discounts for lunch sets and steamboat items from Feb 2016, saying that these were for a “limited period only”, but the discounts continued to be offered for another two years.

By doing this, it breached the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act (CPFTA), the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) said on Friday (Aug 16).

The Act states that it is an unfair practice to represent that goods or services are available at a discounted price for a stated period of time if the supplier knows that these will continue to be available at the same price for a substantially longer period.

CCCS began investigating the eatery at Clementi Avenue 3 last year and found that no end date to the discount period was stated on the promotional materials published on Charcoal Thai 1’s website, social media page and in-store posters and menu, the watchdog said. 

These promotional materials also stated that the discounts for meals such as lunch sets and steamboat items were either available for a “limited period only”, or would be “Ending Soon! 50% Discount", when in fact they continued to be available for at least another two years since Feb 2016. 

“Such claims on the discount period not only misled consumers into believing that there is a price benefit and scarcity in the availability of the promotional prices,” the CCCS said.

It also provided Charcoal Thai 1 an unfair advantage over businesses that comply with the rules, it added.

Charcoal Thai 1 has since agreed to cease its unfair practice and not engage in any other errant practices under the CPFTA, the CCCS said.

The restaurant will also have to display its discounts and promotional periods clearly in all materials or any forms of publicity.

The CCCS has closed its investigations but will continue to monitor Charcoal Thai 1 and similar businesses that engage in unfair practices, it added.