A Consumer NZ investigation found misleading Black Friday deals at four major retailers this shopping season.
Gemma Rasmussen, head of research and advocacy at the watchdog, told Breakfast this morning that retailers are "very good at understanding exactly where the law lies".
The watchdog tracked seven popular household items at four big-box retailers over 10 weeks and found 77% of those products could have been purchased for the same price or less in the weeks ahead of Black Friday.
It comes after Retail NZ said Black Friday sales were down by about 10% this year.
"We were really interested to know just how special Black Friday deals were because they really do get hyped as sort of the sale of the year, and this opportunity to go out and nab a bargain," Rasmussen said.
"We tracked these popular items to get an indication of if the prices were in fact very remarkable.
"What we found was that 77% of the time, they weren't.
"This really comes as a warning for shoppers to stop, and think, and don't get bought into that sales hype."
The misleading sales were to be expected, she added.
"We think, across the board, genuine savings do tend to be quite questionable with retailers.
"There are very specific rules about how long things can be on sale for, that things must be a genuine sales offering.
"I think retailers are very good at understanding exactly where the law lies and complying with that," Rasmussen said.
"Not always, as we've seen in the past – but sort of skirting that line, so there can be a bit of smoke and mirrors."
She recommended shoppers do their research, shop around and also check historical price data online.
Shoppers who saw dodgy pricing were also urged to report it to Consumer NZ or the Commerce Commission.
"But for the most part, we'd say the onus does fall on you, unfortunately."
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