Three beauty salons — Shape Up House, Miss Paris JPN in Osaka and Slim Beauty House in Tokyo — advertised on the HOT PEPPER Beauty booking site with coupons carrying a deadline, such as 'スリム彩革ダイエット 24,200→5500, valid until end of December 2024' and '今だけ70%OFF 骨盤ダイエット 90 min ¥5,000→¥1,500, valid until 25 December 2024'.
The deadline implied the price rise once the date passed. But the same discounted prices continued to be offered after the stated expiry, so the 'valid until' date was a fiction that pressured customers into booking quickly.
Because the terms were shown as more advantageous than they really were, the Consumer Affairs Agency found a violation of Article 5(2) of the Premiums and Representations Act (advantageous misrepresentation). On 25 March 2026 it issued corrective orders against all three salons.
The case is a Japanese example of the fake-deadline marketing vein — urgency manufactured by a deadline the seller never honoured.
The 'valid until' dates were fiction; discounts kept applying after expiry, so the Consumer Affairs Agency issued corrective orders for advantageous misrepresentation.
A countdown deadline makes a customer book today instead of comparing prices
The same discount kept running after the deadline, so the 'until' date was pure fiction
Three salons under related management ran the same fake-urgency play
An expiry date is a promise. When the 70% discount kept running past 'valid until 25 December', the deadline was only there to hurry the customer.
The corrective orders required the three salons to stop the fake-deadline coupons, tell consumers the displays were a violation and introduce recurrence-prevention measures. The case is a lesson that a synthetic countdown is caught the moment the price fails to rise.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE