What is permitted in advertising and what is not? This question is currently being addressed by judges at the Heilbronn Regional Court. Proceedings have begun between the Lidl chain and the Hamburg Consumer Protection Association (case No. 21 O 77/25 KfH). At the center of the dispute is a campaign by the food retailer that caused a public outcry in May 2025. At that time, Lidl advertised the largest price reduction of all time, claiming that 500 products would become cheaper on a permanent basis.
From the perspective of consumer advocates, the Lidl advertisement is inaccurate and misleading. It promises more than it actually offers, emphasized Armin Valet from the Hamburg Consumer Protection Association. The core complaint is that customers could not understand exactly which products and in what quantity were discounted. According to Valet, the figure was virtually impossible to verify because Lidl did not publish a verifiable list.
For this reason, consumer advocates filed a lawsuit against the discounter. They see violations of the Food Information Regulation as well as the Act Against Unfair Competition. These regulations specify that information regarding the volume and scale of price advantages must not be misleading. The court must now determine whether the retail chain went too far. A decision was not expected to be issued this Thursday.
Analysts found fewer discounts than promised
Lidl declined to comment, citing the ongoing proceedings. Last year, representatives of the chain already rejected the accusations. Out of competition concerns, we do not wish to publish a detailed list of articles, a spokesperson explained at the time. The figure of 500 referred to individual items for which the price was reduced in Germany. The promotion covered both national and regional price adjustments. Consumer advocates criticized that this information was only found in a footnote. Furthermore, they claim the number of discounted goods was lower than stated.
Other sources also leveled accusations of inaccuracies against Lidl. The price comparison app Smhaggle was able to identify only about 270 discounted items in June 2025 instead of the promised 500, while retail professor Stephan Rüschen counted approximately 300 individual articles. In Lidl’s advertising, the figure sometimes referred to 500 products and sometimes to individual articles. It remained unclear what the number referred to and whether each flavor of a yogurt, for example, counted as a separate item.
Economist Justus Haukap from the University of Düsseldorf assesses Lidl’s chances in the trial as not particularly high. Many specialists were unable to track which of the supposedly more than 500 products had their prices reduced. How then is a regular consumer supposed to figure it out?, the professor of competition economics remarked. He noted that the fact that some advertised price reductions apply only to regional goods could be viewed by the court as misleading.
Defeat for Aldi Süd in a similar dispute
At the beginning of the year, an analysis by Smhaggle for the publication Handelsblatt additionally found that price reductions at Lidl were partially not long-term in nature. According to this data, more than a quarter of the products discounted in May 2025 have since increased in price again.
The Aldi Süd chain also recently faced criticism due to advertised price reductions. In its catalogs, the discounter indicated percentage discounts relative to the recommended retail price (RRP). The Baden-Württemberg Consumer Protection Association accused Aldi of price manipulation and filed a lawsuit for misleading advertising—successfully. In December 2025, the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf clarified that when offering discounts, retailers must always clearly state the lowest price from the last 30 days. Simply mentioning the RRP is not sufficient.Source: dpa-AFX
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