UK supermarket laws explained as man uses Sainsbury's voucher 'hack' to get air fryer for 18p

Us Brits love a good bargain don’t we? Sure, I’ll buy that product if it means I’ll get a discount on something else. Freebies? Sign me up.

But one man struck absolute gold thanks to a ‘hack’ at the supermarket recently.

His lucky bag came as Sainsbury’s customers had a field day earlier this week when a glitch on the app led to massive discounts on various items.

Videos went viral on TikTok as shoppers bagged trolleys worth of stuff for next to nothing, with this bloke getting himself an air fryer for just 18p.

The bloke shared himself at the self-checkout bagging the kitchen appliance with a whopping £62.82 saving and as unbelievable as it sounds, it looks very real.

You’d think this surely can’t be happening and surely the shopping laws would get in the way, but it all seems a little blurred.

Well, that's a big shopping day. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Citizens advice explains that if you take an item to the till and are told the price on the tag or label is a mistake then ‘you don’t have a right to buy the item at the lower price’.

“You could still try asking the seller to honour the price,” it states. “It’s the same if you see an item advertised anywhere for a lower price than the one on the price tag.”

However, it does add that if the shop ‘sold you an item at a lower cost than they meant to’ then you don’t have to give it back.

Citizens advice explains: “They’re only legally entitled to ask you for more money if you’d talked about the price (eg £100) and they ended up charging you much less instead (eg £10).”

A shopper’s legal rights basically depend on ‘something fairly tricky in the law’ which is whether there’s a ‘contract’ or not.

He's made a saving at least. (Getty Stock Image)

And, dependent on the company’s T&Cs, you’ll have this either once you’ve paid for the item or once they’ve sent it to you.

It explains: “If you have a contract, the company can’t usually cancel your order, even if they realise they’ve sold you something at the wrong price. They’ll only be able to cancel it if it was a genuine and honest mistake on their part that you should’ve noticed.

“If you don’t have a contract and someone realises they’ve told you the wrong price, they can cancel your order.”

So, it seems even if this bloke shouldn’t have been able to bag the 18p air fryer, it can’t really be cancelled now.

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson told LADbible: "We have seen an increase in fraudulent coupons in our stores and we have processes in place to detect and block them.

"We also have in-store detectives monitoring for fraudulent attempts and we are working closely with the police on this issue. We continue to accept genuine coupons and vouchers."