Sources

Every rule and number we use in our tools and articles, in plain words. Each one links to the page it comes from, with that page's date. "Checked" means the date we last opened and read it.

Want to apply the 30-day rule to your own prices? Use the calculator (English, EU), the Streichpreis-Rechner (Deutsch) or the førpris-kalkulator (Norsk).

Price rules: EU, Germany, Norway

  1. EU and EEA: when you announce a price cut, the "was" price must be the lowest price you applied in at least the 30 days before the cut (Price Indication Directive, Art. 6a).

    Bird & Bird, "Transparency of price reductions: a closer look at the legal framework in the EU" · 2025 · checked 7 Nov 2026

  2. Why the EEA too: the EEA Joint Committee added the directive that brought in Art. 6a (Directive (EU) 2019/2161) to the EEA Agreement, Annex XIX, by Decision No 69/2021 of 5 February 2021. It entered into force for the EEA on 1 April 2024. So the rule also covers Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Each country puts it into its own law; Norway's version is § 9a below.

    EUR-Lex, Decision of the EEA Joint Committee No 69/2021 (OJ L, 11 Jan 2024) · entry into force from the EU notice C/2025/1849 (24 Apr 2025) · checked 8 Nov 2026

  3. Exceptions, such as perishable goods, step-by-step price cuts and products on sale for under 30 days, differ from country to country.

    Bird & Bird · 2025 · checked 7 Nov 2026

  4. A discount shown as a percentage ("-20%") must also be worked out from that 30-day lowest price. Naming the lowest price next to it only as information is not enough. EU Court of Justice, C-330/23, Verbraucherzentrale Baden-Württemberg v Aldi Süd.

    beck-aktuell (German) · judgment of 26 Sep 2024 · checked 8 Nov 2026

  5. Germany, § 11 (1) PAngV: anyone who must state a total price has to show consumers, with every announced price cut, the lowest total price they applied in the 30 days before the cut.

    gesetze.legal, § 11 PAngV (German text) · law in force · checked 8 Nov 2026

  6. Germany, exceptions: § 11 (2) lets you keep the price from before a step-by-step cut while the cut runs without a break. § 11 (4) excludes individual price cuts and perishable goods marked down because they will spoil or expire. § 11 speaks of "Waren" (goods).

    gesetze.legal, § 11 PAngV (German text) · law in force · checked 8 Nov 2026

  7. Germany: prices charged on Black Friday and Cyber Monday fall inside the 30-day window of any price cut that follows.

    Taylor Wessing (German) · Oct 2023 · checked 8 Nov 2026

  8. Germany: if the price goes back up between two sales, the second sale counts as a new price cut, so its reference is the lowest price of the 30 days before it. That can be the first sale's price.

    SRD Rechtsanwälte (German) · checked 8 Nov 2026

  9. Norway, prisopplysningsforskriften § 9a: the before-price must be "den laveste prisen som den næringsdrivende har anvendt i minimum 30 dager før markedsføringen startet", the lowest price the trader used in at least the 30 days before the marketing started. Forbrukertilsynet, which enforces the rule, says the 30 days before the price cut starts are what count, not when the marketing started (decision of 25 June 2025, footnote 2).

    Forbrukertilsynet, decision (public version, Norwegian) · 25 Jun 2025 · checked 8 Nov 2026 · also CMS Norway (Norwegian)

  10. United States, FTC guide 16 CFR 233.1: a former price is fictitious if it was never really charged, was set high to inflate the discount, or was charged only briefly. It must have been openly offered in good faith for a reasonably substantial period.

    Cornell Law School LII, 16 CFR 233.1 · current text · checked 7 Nov 2026

Enforcement

  1. In an EU check of Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025, authorities in 23 EU countries, Iceland and Norway looked at 314 online traders. 30% based their discounts on the wrong reference price. 18% used pressure selling.

    European Commission, "EU check reveals misleading sales practices online" · 26 Mar 2026 · checked 8 Nov 2026

  2. That EU check ran around Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 and is not a representative study of all shops.

    heise online (German) · checked 8 Nov 2026

  3. The Netherlands fined five companies a total of EUR 621,000 under the price-reduction rules. Belgium and Spain have also issued penalties.

    Bird & Bird · 2025 · checked 7 Nov 2026

  4. Norway: Forbrukertilsynet fined an online clothing retailer NOK 2,000,000 (the cap in that case was NOK 25,000,000) over its before-prices in November and December 2024, including Black Friday. Decision of 25 June 2025; it could still be appealed.

    Forbrukertilsynet, decision (public version, Norwegian) · 25 Jun 2025 · checked 8 Nov 2026

  5. The US FTC sued several sellers of "AI-powered" money-making schemes, and an AI writing tool that generated fake reviews, in one sweep it called Operation AI Comply.

    FTC press release · 25 Sep 2024 · checked 8 Nov 2026

  6. The FTC proposed that sellers of money-making opportunities must have written proof for their earnings claims. It is a proposal, not a rule yet.

    FTC press release · 13 Jan 2025 · checked 8 Nov 2026

Whop rules

  1. Whop does not allow, among other things, legal services, medical or therapy services, "lifetime access" offers, fake engagement and pirated goods. That's why our price tools are calculators, not legal advice.

    Whop docs, "What is not allowed on Whop" · 2026 · checked 7 Nov 2026

  2. Whop's guidelines ban misleading descriptions, fake reviews and false earnings claims. Earnings claims must be true and backed up, and typical or clearly disclosed.

    Whop docs, Community guidelines · 2026 · checked 7 Nov 2026

  3. Whop cut the commission on sales through its Discover marketplace from 30% to 0% in May 2025.

    Sacra, Whop company page and group.app review · May 2025 · checked 7 Nov 2026

  4. Whop's base fee is about 3% plus card processing. Payouts, tax and disputes can cost extra.

    Whop docs, Fees · 2025-26 · checked 7 Nov 2026

Selling data

  1. In April 2025 about 97% of the money spent on Whop came from sellers' own traffic, not from the Discover marketplace. This was before the Discover fee cut, so it may have shifted.

    Sacra, Whop company page · Apr 2025 · checked 7 Nov 2026

  2. The 15 highest-earning Whop products in an August 2026 snapshot all billed weekly, monthly or quarterly. Revenue figures are estimates (members times price).

    WhopTrends · 20 Aug 2026 · checked 7 Nov 2026

  3. In an analysis of 146,000 Gumroad products, the winners solved one specific problem, and downloadable tools outsold courses on volume (on average 293 sales at $47 against 115 at $96).

    dev.to analysis · 2026 · checked 7 Nov 2026

  4. On Gumroad, prices of $30-49 go together with more revenue than prices under $10. This is a modelled correlation, not proof of cause.

    InsightRaider · 2026 · checked 7 Nov 2026

  5. On one large 3D-model marketplace (CGTrader), about 1 in 6 new models were AI-generated, but they made about 2.6% of sales (June 2025 to May 2026).

    Fortune · 20 Aug 2026 · checked 7 Nov 2026

  6. The Shopify App Store has several apps for the 30-day lowest price rule.

    OmniProof, Omnibus EU Compliance, Omnibus Price Guard · Nov 2026 · checked 7 Nov 2026

  7. Faking a Stripe revenue dashboard in the browser takes under a minute, so an income screenshot proves nothing on its own.

    Tom's Guide · 29 Jul 2026 · checked 8 Nov 2026

  8. A free tool listed on Product Hunt makes "real-looking Stripe payment notifications screenshots".

    Product Hunt listing · 2023 · checked 8 Nov 2026

  9. In one analysis of 146,271 Gumroad products, 77.3% of modelled revenue went to 130 products (about 1% of the 12,952 products with any sales). Revenue is estimated from list price and a sales signal, not audited.

    InsightRaider, State of Gumroad 2026 · updated 5 Oct 2026 · checked 8 Nov 2026

  10. In surveys of more than 1,000 US adults, mentioning "artificial intelligence" in a product description lowered emotional trust and purchase intent, more strongly for high-risk products.

    Washington State University (Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management) · 30 Jul 2024 · checked 8 Nov 2026

  11. The US FTC rule on fake reviews and testimonials (16 CFR 465) allows penalties of up to $51,744 per violation.

    Morgan Lewis · 26 Aug 2024 · checked 8 Nov 2026

Correction 8 Nov 2026: our guide said "the top 1% took about 77% of tracked revenue" and credited dev.to. The real source is InsightRaider's report, and the figure is 77.3% of modelled revenue going to 130 products. We fixed the guide.