The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2024
Fadds' 新時代 bar menus advertised tax-in prices that excluded tax
Japan ordered Fadds to stop labelling bar prices as tax-included when the figures actually left out consumption tax.
Fadds Co., Ltd. (株式会社ファッズ) · 2024-07-29
What happened
Fadds ran a chain of izakaya-style bars under the names '新時代' and '新時代44'. Across the stores' menus on Tabelog and on the chain's official X account, prices for food and drink were labelled '（税込価格）' — tax-included price — when the listed figures in fact excluded consumption tax.
The menus showed a 生ビール (draft beer) at 190円 and a ハイボール at 150円, with promotional posts boasting 'コンビニよりも安い' (cheaper than a convenience store) alongside them. Because the stated prices were advertised as tax-inclusive, customers were led to believe they would pay less than the actual tax-inclusive total.
On 29 July 2024 the Consumer Affairs Agency issued an administrative order under the Act Against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations, finding an advantageous-conditions misrepresentation (Article 5(2)). Most food-menu displays ran from 21 June to 25 December 2023, and the X posts from November 2021 onward.
Why it happened
- Labeling prices as tax-included when they were really tax-exclusive
- Letting the 'cheaper than a convenience store' pitch lean on a tax fiction
The lesson
A price label is a promise about what the customer pays. Writing 'tax included' over figures that exclude tax turns a menu into a misrepresentation, and the cheap-pitch makes it worse.
Aftermath
The CAA ordered Fadds to stop the misleading displays, inform consumers the prices were misrepresented, and implement recurrence-prevention measures. The ruling put Japan's food-and-drink chains on notice that 'tax-included' labels would be checked against the actual till price.
Sources
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