What Does Compare at Price Mean, and When Is It Legal?

Edu here. This week I searched about 100,000 comments from 19 of our studies for the words "compare at price", and nobody had written them. Not once. The only match was someone saying this year's deals "don't compare at all" to last year's, so I guess that doesn't count. The phrase comes from the Shopify admin, and shoppers use their own words for it, like "regular price", "MSRP" or just the price with a slash through it.

I went looking because Black Friday is five weeks away, and a lot of brands are about to fill in that field for hundreds of products. And this year the crossed-out price has become a legal question too. So here's what compare at price means, what the law and Amazon now expect from it, and what shoppers think when they see one.

What does compare at price mean?

Shopify's help page keeps it simple. To show a sale, you set the compare-at price field to "the original price of the product". Your theme then shows that number crossed out next to the price people pay. Most themes also add a sale badge or a "% off". The only thing Shopify checks is that the compare at price is higher than the price, so it doesn't know (or ask) whether you ever charged it.

In practice brands use the field in two ways. Some put in their own old price, the one they charged before the sale. Others put in a number from somewhere else, like the MSRP or what a similar product costs at a bigger brand. The FTC's pricing guides treat these separately. Your own old price should be a "bona fide" price the product was offered at "on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time". A price from somewhere else shouldn't be much higher than what the product really sells for in your area. And if neither is true, the guide says the "reduced" price is "probably just the seller's regular price."

Shoppers know the second version well, mostly from outlet stores. One of them explained it better than I could:

"This is why they say "compare to" instead of "retail price." They have never been sold at the "compare to" price."

Why are compare at prices in court this year?

The biggest case is against Nike. A shopper filed a proposed class action in federal court in San Diego on July 21, 2026, and the complaint is full of screenshots. Between September 2025 and March 2026, the black Air Max 2017 showed a crossed-out $190 next to a sale price and a green "39% off". The lawyers collected its price on 176 different days in that stretch, and Nike never sold it for more than $171.97 (according to the complaint). One detail made me smile a bit. On the same day, the same Killshot 2 sneakers showed a crossed-out $100 in the Nike app and $90 on the website. Same shoe, same day.

Lululemon was sued the day before, in Los Angeles Superior Court, over Wunder Train tights sold at $59 "from" $98. The shopper says they hadn't sold at $98 since October 2025, and she bought hers in April 2026. And Quince has been in court since November 2025 over the "traditional retail" price it shows next to its own. In its April 2026 motion to dismiss, Quince argues those numbers compare its products with other brands, they aren't its own old prices, and its comparison charts make that clear. All of these are claims for now (no court has ruled against any of the three).

Most of these cases lean on California's False Advertising Law. Under that law, an old price has to have been the going price "within three months next immediately preceding" the ad. The only way around it is to say clearly in the ad when that price applied. The Nike complaint puts the problem in one line: "Nike's sales frequently last longer than 90 days." I think this is the part a lot of DTC brands miss. Your old price can be completely honest in March and stale by July, just because the sale never ended.

Amazon went the same way on its own. Since April 23, 2026, it only shows a seller's list price crossed out when there's proof behind it. Either customers bought the product at that price on Amazon, or another store offered it at that price recently, and otherwise the strike-through and the savings just don't appear. And since May 18, sale days also count toward Amazon's "Typical Price" when a product has been discounted for more than half of the last 90 days. So on Amazon a made-up "was" price now disappears by itself. On Shopify the field still takes whatever number you type.

What do shoppers say about crossed-out prices?

None of this is news to shoppers. In our study of 8,000 Black Friday comments, the most common verdict on the day was that the deals are fake (about 31% of verdicts). People said prices get raised first and then cut back down, and only 2 comments defended the deals.

This week I went back to those 8,000 comments and searched for words like "original price", "MSRP" and "slashed". About 170 came back, and I'd say roughly 70 of them accuse a store of a made-up original price, almost always with the exact numbers. I'd call it a rough count from a keyword search (so it isn't part of the study's sample), but I didn't expect people to be this specific.

"I've been watching some dolls for younger family members and they've all been $25+ all year. But now for black Friday they're “marked down” to $25 with the original slashed out price saying “$45”"

"I was paying $109.99 before and now its still 109.99 but they have a price of $150 and then crossed out showing a "sale" and set it to its normal price. What a joke!"

Also, look at the words they use. Across all 19 studies I searched, people wrote "retail price" or "regular price" more than 50 times each, and "original price" and "MSRP" more than 40 times each. "Compare at price" never came up.

Some of them even suggest a rule, and it's close to what California already has.

"I think it should be illegal to advertise a discount unless the item was actually marketed at the retail price for at least a month."

A few people who used to work in retail described how it looks from the inside. This one, from someone who worked at a sporting goods company, is the clearest:

"I used to work for a, sporting goods company, and we'd literally sit down with The Sports Authority on "special make ups" for Black Friday and let them tell us what they wanted the MSRP to be. So we'd say "OK, you want to sell it at $xxx price and still make your normal margin, and you want to be able to say 'half off' so we'll just make the MSRP twice as high.""

The same thing happens outside discounts. In our beauty advent calendars study, buyers mostly ignore the big "value" printed on the box and add up the two or three products they'd buy anyway. And in the Black Friday study, tracking the price history was the most common thing people did before the sale (about 22%). Some even named their tool, and 119 comments mention a price-history site or a price alert. So for this kind of shopper, a crossed-out price is mostly a reason to go and check. Amazon even gives them the chart now.

"There is a nice feature on Amazon now where you can see the 90 day price history on a chart for every product. The majority of items do something like this: normal price > temp inflated price > Black Friday price (about 5% below normal price)."

Does a crossed-out price still sell more?

Honestly, I don't know. Many shoppers in these comments don't believe the number, but they're also the shoppers who post about prices, and they might not be your typical buyer. In our discount study, someone in an Etsy forum told the old JCPenney story as proof that people need the fake sale:

"A few years ago JCPenney decided they were going to try a real price model. Meaning they did away with all the fake sales and just had their products always be the real accurate price 24/7. Their sales tanked."

Maybe that's still true for a department store, but I'm not sure it holds for a small brand whose customers can check a price on their phone in ten seconds. Also, in our advent calendar study, the calendars with the biggest claimed values tended to sell out first. So maybe the number works on buyers who never post (I can't rule it out). Amazon's change might give us a better answer next year, because a lot of strike-throughs on the biggest store just stopped showing.

Frequently asked questions

What does compare at price mean on Shopify?

On Shopify, the compare at price is the number shown crossed out next to the price a customer actually pays. Shopify's help page says to set it to the original price of the product. But the only thing Shopify checks is that it's higher than the price, so nothing stops you from typing a number you never charged.

Is it legal to use a compare at price?

Yes, as long as the number is real. The FTC's pricing guides say a former price has to be one the product was really offered at, regularly, for a reasonably substantial period of time. California is stricter about timing, because there a former price generally has to have been the going price in the past three months. The exception is when the ad clearly says when that price applied. This isn't legal advice, so check with a lawyer for your own case.

How long does a product have to sell at the compare at price?

There's no single federal number, because the FTC only asks for a reasonably substantial period of time. California is clearer. There, the former price generally has to be the going price from the last three months, and the Nike and Lululemon lawsuits are built on that rule. So a sale that runs for more than about 90 days can turn a real old price into a stale one.

Is compare at price the same as MSRP?

Not always, because brands use the field in two ways. Some put in their own previous price, and others put the MSRP or a price from another store, which the FTC treats as a different case. So if the number isn't your own old price, it's clearer to say where it comes from (or to leave the field empty).

Do shoppers trust crossed-out prices?

Many don't. The most common verdict in our study of 8,000 Black Friday comments was that the deals are fake (about 31% of verdicts). People said prices get raised first and then cut back down, and only 2 comments defended the deals. Tracking the price history was also the most common thing shoppers did before the sale.

What I'd do before Black Friday

I'm not a lawyer, so read this as a researcher's take on the cases and the comments, not legal advice. But if I were setting up a small brand's Black Friday prices this week, I'd start by checking every compare at price against what the product actually sold for since summer. If a product has been "on sale" since July, the old price is probably stale, and I'd either bring the real price back for a while or clear the field.

I wouldn't touch prices in October at all. In the Black Friday study, 17 mentions described a price going up in October or early November, and those are exactly the stories behind the "fake deals" verdict.

If the number comes from somewhere else, like an MSRP or a bigger brand's price, I'd say so next to it. On its own, "compare at" reads as your old price. Same for bundles and kits. A "$120 value" is only honest if the things inside really sell for that on their own, and buyers will add them up. And then I'd write the reference in plain words on the page, something like "our everyday price since March", so the shopper doesn't have to go and check. If you're working out what that everyday price should be in the first place, I wrote about pricing research for DTC brands a while ago.

All in all, I think a compare at price you can't explain is a bigger risk this year than a sale without one. If you've ever run a sale with no crossed-out price at all, I'd really like to know how it went.

Sources

1. Pearson v. Nike, Inc., No. 3:26-cv-04167 (S.D. Cal.). Class action complaint, filed July 21, 2026. Source for the Air Max 2017, Gato, Blazer and Killshot 2 reference prices, the 176 days of price data, the "39% off" display, the 90-day quote and the text of California Business and Professions Code section 17501 as quoted in the complaint. Link Retrieved October 22, 2026.
2. SGB Executive. (2026). Nike and Lululemon each face lawsuits over deceptive pricing allegations. SGB Media, August 5, 2026. Source for the Lululemon lawsuit (filed July 20 in Los Angeles Superior Court; Wunder Train tights at $59 from $98). Link Retrieved October 22, 2026.
3. TFL. (2026). Quince aims to beat lawsuit over "fraudulent" pricing claims. The Fashion Law, April 7, 2026. Source for Mandel v. Last Brand, Inc. d/b/a Quince (N.D. Cal., filed November 2025) and Quince's April 2, 2026 motion to dismiss. Link Retrieved October 22, 2026.
4. Shopify Help Center. Sale pricing. Source for how the compare-at price field works and the "original price of the product" wording. Link Retrieved October 22, 2026.
5. Federal Trade Commission. Guides Against Deceptive Pricing, 16 CFR 233.1 (former price comparisons) and 233.2 (retail price comparisons; comparable value comparisons). Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. 233.1, 233.2 Retrieved October 22, 2026.
6. Rijo, L. (2026). Amazon's fake discount crackdown: List Price rules tighten April 23. PPC Land, April 1, 2026. Source for the two List Price conditions, the hidden strike-through and the May 18 Typical Price change. Link Retrieved October 22, 2026.
7. Alix, A. (2026). Amazon cracks down on inflated discounts with new pricing rules starting April 23. EcomCrew, updated April 6, 2026. Source for the Typical Price recalculation and the excluded promotion types. Link Retrieved October 22, 2026.