Black Friday 2026 in the UK: How to Tell a Real Discount From a Fake One

What Black Friday is in Britain now

Black Friday is the day after the American Thanksgiving holiday, the fourth Thursday of November, so the date moves: in 2026 it is Friday 27 November, with Cyber Monday on 30 November. Amazon UK and Asda imported it in the early 2010s, Argos, John Lewis and Very followed in 2014, and it has spread out over weeks since.

It is no longer a day. Which? notes that many retailers start discounting at the beginning of November, hence "Black November". Currys opened its 2025 sale on 29 October, four weeks early, and Amazon's Black Friday Week ran twelve days, from 20 November to 1 December. The date matters less than it did; the price history matters more.

How a reference price is supposed to work

A discount is only a discount against something: the "was" figure with a line through it, or an RRP. The Competition and Markets Authority has said what a genuine one looks like. Investigating online mattress sellers in 2024, it found retailers had "sold very few of those products at the 'was' price", and Simba Sleep undertook to "ensure any 'was' price is genuine" by selling enough at that price first.

Two things have moved since. The CMA's guidance under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 bans "falsely stating that a product will only be available for a limited time" to force a quick decision, and the CMA can now fine up to 10 per cent of global turnover. And in August 2026 the government said it will consult this autumn on adding "fake 'was' prices, invented discounts and misleading recommended retail prices (RRPs)" to the automatically banned list, because "under current laws, it can be difficult for enforcers to take on these cases." Treat every crossed-out figure as a claim, not a fact.

What Which? found when it tracked the prices

Which? tracks Black Friday prices every year. Its November 2025 analysis followed 175 home, tech and health products at eight retailers (Amazon, AO, Argos, Boots, Currys, John Lewis, Richer Sounds and Very) from May 2024 to May 2025: 83 per cent had been cheaper or the same price at least once outside the four-week Black Friday period, and 42 per cent had been cheaper. On the day itself, "there were no deals in our analysis that were at their cheapest price of the year on Black Friday 2024."

One example: a Samsung Jet Bot robot vacuum had been cheaper in May and June than in the sale. The analysis of Black Friday 2022 (208 products) found 98 per cent the same price or less at other times, with headphones and TVs the worst offenders and tablets among the few where nothing tracked was cheaper elsewhere. Which?'s conclusion: "shoppers should not feel rushed into buying anything on Black Friday", since a good price is likely again by January.

How to check a price yourself

Price history. For Amazon, camelcamelcamel and Keepa chart a listing's price over months; Keepa's browser extension works on amazon.co.uk. Which?'s phone expert is blunt: "Don't trust the 'was' price. Use a price history tracker."
Screenshots. Capture the listing price now and again in mid-November. That catches the trick Which? describes: a price raised in October, dropped back to normal in November and called a half-price sale.
The 30-day comparison. In the EU a discount must be measured against the lowest price of the previous 30 days; the UK test is the CMA's looser one above. Where a retailer shows a "lowest price in 30 days" label, read it as exactly that: the last month, not the year.
Why this site shows no prices. Every card here says "Check price" and links to the live listing, because Amazon's Associates terms only permit publishing a price from its own data feed, which is not yet switched on for this site.

Your rights do not change on a sale day

Changing your mind. For anything bought online, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give you a cooling-off period. Citizens Advice: it "starts the day after you receive your order", nothing needs to be wrong with the item, you must tell the seller within 14 days, and you then have another 14 days to send it back, with the refund due within 14 days of that. In a shop there is no such right: returning an unwanted item is the shop's policy, not the law.

Faults. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires goods to be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described. Within 30 days you can reject faulty goods for a full refund; up to six months the retailer gets one repair or replacement before a refund is due, and a fault found in that time is presumed to have been there at purchase. The claim is against the retailer, not the maker. Nothing here says "unless it was reduced".

Which tech categories move, and which do not

This is a pattern Which? and the retailers describe, not a promise about any listing.

What tends to be discounted. Which? says most technology, "including smartphones, TVs and tablets, is released on a one-year cycle", so last year's model is the one that gets cut. Apple is the sharpest case: it "tends to offer fairly meagre discounts, especially on newer models", and the best deals "can be on predecessors to the current range". On headphones the discounts are real but the timing is not special: Which? found five pairs, including the Sony WH-1000XM5 and WH-1000XM4, cheaper in December 2024 than on Black Friday. Robot vacuums are, in Which?'s words, often discounted "especially during online events such as Black Friday", and in Amazon's 2024 sale the Echo Dot smart speaker and Fire TV Stick 4K were among the UK best-sellers.

What rarely moves. Current-generation products from makers that discount little, above all Apple. On phones, Which?'s expert steers readers to mid-range alternatives and last year's flagships rather than the newest handset. Cameras are not covered by this tracking, so no claim is made about them.

A checklist for the day

Decide what you want before November, and read the review of that exact model.
Pull the price history now and screenshot the listing. If November's price is not below October's, it is not a deal.
Ignore the percentage and the crossed-out figure; compare the price you would pay against the history and two other retailers.
Check who is selling. Over 60 per cent of sales in Amazon's 2024 event came from independent sellers, who handle their own returns.
Read the returns policy; the 14-day cooling-off clock starts the day after delivery.
Ignore countdown clocks; if the price is merely fair, wait for January.

How this site behaves on the day

This site does not become a deals page in November. Every morning an automated sweep re-reads every listing on Amazon UK: whether it still has a buy box, whether the ASIN still points at the same product, and what it costs. A listing with no featured offer on three checks in a row is marked unavailable and drops off its page, and a "Buy Used" offer with no new stock counts as no offer. Ranks are recomputed on every build. Prices are still not printed; the button goes to the live listing.

The picks worth having on a watch list

None of these is predicted to be discounted; each illustrates the pattern above.

The Sony WH-1000XM5 is the previous Sony flagship on our headphones list, superseded by the XM6, and the exact pair Which? found cheaper in December 2024 than on Black Friday. The Bose QuietComfort is worth watching: our list notes the gap between it and the QuietComfort Ultra "moves a lot on Amazon UK", and when it closes the Ultra is the better buy.

On laptops, the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-55 is what a Black Friday laptop deal usually looks like: tenth-generation Intel, an RTX 3050, an older platform at a lower price on the deepest owner record in its category. Our list calls it "a well-proven machine on ageing silicon, not a current-generation bargain". The Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M5) is the opposite case, current-generation Apple: watch it, but expect any cut on the predecessor first.

On tablets, the Amazon Fire HD 10 is Amazon's own device in Amazon's own event, and its one condition, Fire OS with no Google Play Store, does not change with the price. Among robot vacuums, the eufy X10 Pro Omni is the sort of machine Which? says is often discounted at these events, with the Samsung Jet Bot as the warning. Check the chart, not the badge.

When is Black Friday 2026 in the UK?

Friday 27 November 2026, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, with Cyber Monday on 30 November. The discounts start weeks earlier; in 2025 Currys opened on 29 October and Amazon on 20 November.

Are Black Friday deals actually cheaper?

Some are, but the day is not special. Which?'s tracking of Black Friday 2024 found 83 per cent of products cheaper or the same price at other times, and none at its cheapest on the day. A deal is real when the price is below the listing's recent history, not merely below a crossed-out "was" figure.

Can I return a Black Friday purchase?

Yes, on the same terms as any purchase. Bought online, you can cancel for any reason within 14 days of delivery and have another 14 days to send it back; in a shop, it depends on the shop's policy. If it is faulty, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies in full, and the claim is against the retailer.