This page summarises the rules on unit prices in the EU and what is known about shrinkflation, with links to the official sources. It is not legal advice.
What is shrinkflation?
Shrinkflation is when a product gets smaller (less weight, volume or fewer pieces) while its price stays the same or goes up, so the price per kilogram or litre rises without an obvious price change. The French government describes it as legal but controversial, because consumers cannot easily detect it when they buy (Service Public Entreprendre).
EU rule: the unit price must be shown
Directive 98/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 1998 on consumer protection in the indication of the prices of products offered to consumers requires traders to indicate both the selling price and the unit price of products. The unit price is the price per kilogram, litre, metre, square metre or cubic metre, or per single item where that makes sense. Member States may exempt some products or small retailers. Each EU country implements the directive in its own law, for example the Preisangabenverordnung (PAngV) in Germany.
The directive was amended by Directive (EU) 2019/2161, which added a rule on announced price reductions: the "prior price" must be the lowest price the trader applied in the 30 days before the reduction.
France: a specific shrinkflation notice
Since 1 July 2024, under the Arrêté of 16 April 2024, food retailers in France with shops larger than 400 m² must label pre-packed everyday products whose quantity went down and whose unit price went up. The notice states the old and new quantity and the increase in the unit price, and it must be shown for the first two months the smaller product is on sale. It applies in physical shops (French Ministry of Economy press release, 19 April 2024).
What the rules do not cover
Outside France, the unit price tells you what a product costs per kilogram today, but nothing tells you what the same product cost per kilogram last month or that the pack used to be bigger. Online, the unit price is often in small print or missing on some pages.
How ShrinkWatch EU helps
ShrinkWatch EU is a free, open-source browser extension. It shows the unit price on supported web shops, cross-checks it against the shop's own figure, and keeps a private history in your browser so it can warn you when a product you saw before comes back smaller. It makes no network requests and collects no data. It does not use any shrinkflation database: a warning is based only on what your own browser saw.
For journalists
You are welcome to cite this page and use the demo GIF. The source code and the per-shop test results are public. Questions: open an issue.
