Disclosure: PricePing makes this guide and sells a price tracker, so we have an interest in you checking prices. The evidence comes from consumer groups and regulators, listed in Sources. We are not affiliated with any of them.
The short answer
Some deals are real, many are not. The most reliable test is the product’s own price over the weeks before the sale. For Amazon you can look that up. For most other stores nobody publishes it, so you have to start the record yourself, before the sale. Black Friday 2026 is Friday, November 27, so there is still time.
What the evidence says
- Which? (UK, November 2025). It tracked 175 home, tech and health appliances from eight big retailers for a year. 83% were the same price or cheaper at least once outside the four-week sales period. None was at its cheapest only on Black Friday itself.
- Which? (UK, November 2024). Of the deals on 227 products in a previous Black Friday fortnight, 92% were the same price or cheaper at other times of the year.
- The results vary by shop. In the 2025 study the figure was 94% at John Lewis, 88% at Amazon and 55% at Richer Sounds, so some shops do offer better deals than others.
- ACCC (Australia). Its sweep of Black Friday 2024 advertising found “site wide” discounts that were not site wide and potentially misleading was/now pricing. In November 2025 it announced another sweep and encouraged shoppers to check prices before the sales start.
These figures come from particular countries and mostly from home and tech products. We know of no equivalent study covering the whole market, or the Gulf.
Do stores raise prices before Black Friday?
Some have, and regulators have acted on it. In July 2025 Spain’s consumer ministry sanctioned seven online retailers, with fines of €350,000, for raising prices before Black Friday 2023 and then dropping them back to the original price to sell them as a discount.
Price history shows the pattern. In the Which? study, a robot vacuum at John Lewis was £299 in May and June, £399 in August and September, and £500 in early October. On Black Friday it was £350: a saving from October, but £51 more than in June. PriceSpy, a UK price comparison site, also found that prices rose during Black Week itself for 10% to 26% of products in the ten categories it checked in 2022.
How to tell if a Black Friday deal is real
- Find the price before the sale. Look up what the product sold for in the weeks before the sale. That number, not the crossed-out one, is what a deal has to beat.
- Look for a rise just before the sale. A product that climbed in October and came back down in November is not on sale. It is back where it was.
- Ignore the RRP. A saving measured from a recommended price means little if the shop rarely charged that price. Compare with what it actually charged.
- Check the exact model number. Search the full model number. If you find only sale adverts and no reviews, it may be a version made for the sales, with a lower price because it has less in it.
- Compare other stores. Check the same model at two or three other shops. A deal that only beats the store's own old price may not beat anyone else's normal price.
- Decide your price, then stop rushing. Decide what you would pay. If the deal doesn't reach it, wait: a countdown timer is not evidence that the price will rise.
Two examples from Which?: an electric toothbrush at Boots advertised as “save £25, RRP £50” had that RRP for only 13 days in the six months before the sale. Model numbers matter because a new one has no history to check: NBC News reported in 2015 that makers sometimes give a TV a new model number for the sales, or change it to reach a lower price, for example with one HDMI input fewer.
These checks are about one deal, on the day. For the warning signs and what the law says, see how to spot a fake discount. For where to look up a price history, see how to check the price history of an item.
Add products before the sale, not on the day
PricePing’s price history starts the day you add a product. It can’t show what a product cost before that. If you add something on Black Friday, its chart starts on Black Friday and tells you nothing about the deal in front of you. A product added in the first week of November has about three weeks of prices by November 27, which is enough to catch a rise just before the sale.
PricePing, the price tracker app for iPhone and Android, works with almost any online store: share the product page to it, or paste the link, and it records each price it reads. It doesn’t judge the deal for you. It gives you the line, and you compare the sale price with it. Set an alert below the lowest price you have seen, and it pings you when a check finds it. The full plan is in Black Friday price tracking. In the Gulf, see White Friday in the UAE.
If you only buy from Amazon, you don’t need to wait or pay: Keepa and camelcamelcamel already have years of history, including last year’s Black Friday.
PricePing’s limits, honestly
- It is a subscription with no free tier. Monthly plans start with a 7-day free trial; yearly plans don’t have one.
- Price history starts when you add a product. It can’t show what the price was last year.
- Prices are checked at least once a day, not every second, so alerts are not instant.
Questions
Are Black Friday deals fake?
Not all of them, but many are not as good as they look. Which? found that 83% of the 175 UK products it tracked for a year were the same price or cheaper at some point outside the Black Friday sales period. A deal can be a real price and still not be a real saving.
Do stores raise prices before Black Friday?
Some have. In July 2025 Spain's consumer ministry sanctioned seven online retailers that raised prices before Black Friday and then lowered them to the original price to sell them as a discount. It is not universal, which is why you need the history of the product in front of you.
Are Amazon Black Friday deals real?
Some are. Which? found that 88% of the Amazon deals it analysed in the UK were the same price or cheaper outside the sale period, and 63% were cheaper. For Amazon you can check for yourself: Keepa and camelcamelcamel show years of price history for free.
Is Black Friday a scam?
No, but it is marketing. Real discounts exist: at the best retailer in the Which? study, 45% of deals were not matched or beaten at other times of the year. The problem is that a sale label doesn't tell you which deals those are.
Is it better to wait until after Black Friday?
Often you lose nothing by waiting. Which? found that no deal in its study was at its cheapest only on the day itself, and it found products that were cheaper in the months after. That doesn't guarantee a low price later, so buy when the price beats your own number.
Can PricePing tell me if a Black Friday deal is real?
It can show you the evidence, not a verdict. PricePing's price history starts the day you add a product, so add the product before the sale. A product added on the day has no history to compare with.
More guides: Black Friday price tracking, White Friday in the UAE, how to spot a fake discount, how to check the price history of an item, how to get notified when something goes on sale, a price tracker for any website and the Keepa alternative. All guides are in PricePing guides.
Sources
- Which?, “Don’t believe the hype: Most Black Friday deals the same price or cheaper at other times of the year” (25 November 2025)
- Which?, “Nine in 10 Black Friday ‘deals’ cheaper or same price at other times of the year” (26 November 2024)
- ACCC, sweep finds concerning Black Friday sales advertising
- ACCC, retailers on notice ahead of Black Friday sweep
- Spain’s Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and 2030 Agenda, press release on false Black Friday discounts (4 July 2025, in Spanish)
- PriceSpy, how often prices go up in popular categories during Black Week
- NBC News, “Black Friday Brief: ‘Derivative’ TVs a Smoking Deal or a Sham?”
- Keepa · Price Tracker, App Store listing
- camelcamelcamel
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