CMA secures changes to Simba Sleep’s online sales practices

Simba Sleep Limited has agreed to change its online sales practices as a result of an investigation by the CMA which raised concerns that the mattress company may have misled customers about price reductions and put unfair pressure on them to make quick purchases.  

In December last year, the CMA opened an investigation into Simba Sleep, setting out its concerns and asked the firm to address them. The company has now signed formal commitments known as undertakings. It has committed to action, including: 

• Genuine discount claims: Simba Sleep will ensure any ‘was’ price is genuine – in other words, that they actually sell a sufficient volume of the product at that price before using it as a ‘was’ price. 
• Countdown clocks: Simba Sleep will ensure that any countdown clocks used on its websites are clear; specify prominently which products they apply to; and do not give consumers a false impression that they must act quickly – or that when the clock ends the product will revert to the ‘was’ price – if this is not the case. 

To support its ongoing work addressing potentially harmful online sales practices in the online mattress sector, the CMA has also published principles which are aimed at traders in the online mattress sector who use price reduction claims. 

This investigation into Simba Sleep is part of the CMA’s ongoing programme of consumer enforcement work focused on ‘Online Choice Architecture’ which is aimed at tackling potentially harmful online selling practices.

CMA secures changes to Simba Sleep’s online sales practices - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)