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

When it falls, and why it lasts for weeks

Black Friday 2026 is Friday 27 November. It's the day after American Thanksgiving, which is the fourth Thursday of November, so the date moves from year to year. Cyber Monday follows on 30 November.

Amazon UK and Asda brought it to Britain in the early 2010s. Argos, John Lewis and Very followed in 2014. Since then it has spread out over weeks.

So it's no longer a single day. Many retailers start discounting at the beginning of November, Which? notes, and that's where the name "Black November" comes from. Currys opened its 2025 sale on 29 October, four weeks early. That year, Amazon's Black Friday Week ran for twelve days, from 20 November to 1 December.

The date matters less than it did. What matters more is the price history: what a product has actually sold for over the months before.

What makes a "was" price genuine

A discount only means something if you know what it's measured against. That's the "was" price with a line through it, or an RRP (the recommended retail price). The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said what a genuine one looks like.

In 2024 the CMA investigated online mattress sellers. It found retailers had "sold very few of those products at the 'was' price". Simba Sleep formally agreed to "ensure any 'was' price is genuine", by selling enough at that price first.

Two things have changed since. The first is the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. The CMA's guidance under it bans "falsely stating that a product will only be available for a limited time" to push you into a quick decision. The Act also lets the CMA fine a business up to 10 per cent of its global turnover.

The second came in August 2026. The government said it would consult that autumn on banning these outright: "fake 'was' prices, invented discounts and misleading recommended retail prices (RRPs)". Its reason: "under current laws, it can be difficult for enforcers to take on these cases."

So treat every crossed-out price 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 from May 2024 to May 2025. They were sold at eight retailers: Amazon, AO, Argos, Boots, Currys, John Lewis, Richer Sounds and Very.

Of the 175, 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. As for the day itself, "there were no deals in our analysis that were at their cheapest price of the year on Black Friday 2024."

Take a Samsung Jet Bot robot vacuum, which had been cheaper in May and June than it was in the sale. Which?'s look at Black Friday 2022 covered 208 products, and found 98 per cent were the same price or less at other times. Headphones and TVs were the worst offenders. Tablets were among the few categories where nothing tracked was cheaper elsewhere.

Which?'s conclusion is that "shoppers should not feel rushed into buying anything on Black Friday". A good price, it says, is likely to come round again by January.

How to check a price yourself

You don't have to take a crossed-out price on trust. Here's what to look at instead.

Look up the price history. For Amazon, camelcamelcamel and Keepa chart a listing's price over months, and Keepa's browser extension works on amazon.co.uk. Which?'s phone expert is blunt about it: "Don't trust the 'was' price. Use a price history tracker."
Take screenshots. Capture the listing price well before the sale, then again in mid-November. That catches a trick Which? describes. The price goes up during October, drops back to normal in November, and gets called a half-price sale.
The 30-day comparison. In the EU, a discount has to be measured against the lowest price of the previous 30 days. The UK uses the CMA's looser test, described above. If a retailer shows a "lowest price in 30 days" label, read it as exactly that. It covers the last month, not the year.
Why you won't see prices here. Every card on this site says "Check price" and links to the live listing. Amazon's Associates terms (the rules for its affiliate programme) only let a site publish a price that comes from Amazon's own data feed. That feed isn't switched on for this site yet.

Your rights don't change on a sale day

Changing your mind. Anything you buy online comes with a cooling-off period, under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. It "starts the day after you receive your order", says Citizens Advice, and nothing needs to be wrong with the item. You must tell the seller within 14 days. Then you have another 14 days to send it back, and the refund is due within 14 days of that. In a shop there's no such right. Taking back something you don't want is down to the shop's policy, not the law.

Faults. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described. Within 30 days, you can reject faulty goods for a full refund. After that, and up to six months, the retailer gets one repair or replacement before a refund is due. A fault found in that time is presumed to have been there when you bought it. Your claim is against the retailer, not the maker. And none of it says "unless it was reduced".

Which tech gets cheaper, and which doesn't

This is a pattern that Which? and the retailers describe. It isn't 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 clearest case. It "tends to offer fairly meagre discounts, especially on newer models", and the best deals "can be on predecessors to the current range".

Headphone discounts are real, but the timing isn't special. Which? found five pairs cheaper in December 2024 than on Black Friday, including the Sony WH-1000XM5 and WH-1000XM4. Robot vacuums, in Which?'s words, are 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 gets cheaper. The current generation from makers that don't discount much, and Apple above all. For phones, Which?'s expert steers readers towards mid-range alternatives and last year's flagships, rather than the newest handset. This tracking doesn't cover cameras, so we make no claim about them.

A checklist for the day

Decide before November. Know what you want, and read the review of that exact model.
Get the price history early. Pull it up and screenshot the listing before the sale starts. If November's price isn't below October's, it isn't a deal.
Ignore the percentage and the crossed-out price. Compare what you'd actually pay with the price history, and with two other retailers.
Check who's selling it. Over 60 per cent of sales in Amazon's 2024 event came from independent sellers, and they 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.

What this site does during the sales

This site doesn't turn into a deals page in November. Every morning, an automatic check reads each pick's listing on Amazon UK again. It asks three things. Can you still buy it from the listing? Does the ASIN (Amazon's code for the product) still point at the same product? And what does it cost?

If a pick can't be bought from its listing on three checks in a row, it's marked unavailable and drops off its page. A "Buy Used" offer on its own, with no new stock, doesn't count. The rankings are worked out again every time the site is rebuilt. We still don't print prices. The button takes you to the live listing instead.

Picks worth keeping an eye on

We're not predicting a discount on any of these. Each one is an example of the pattern above.

The Sony WH-1000XM5 is on our headphones list. It's Sony's previous flagship, replaced by the XM6, and it's the exact pair Which? found cheaper in December 2024 than on Black Friday. The Bose QuietComfort is worth watching too. Our list notes that the price gap between it and the QuietComfort Ultra "moves a lot on Amazon UK". When that gap 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. It's older hardware at a lower price, with a tenth-generation Intel processor and an RTX 3050 graphics card. It also has more owner ratings behind it than any other laptop we list. 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 to land on the model before it first.

On tablets, the TECLAST P50T is the cheapest pick on the list, and its listing wants reading twice before any price does. The memory figure in the title counts virtual memory; 4GB is fitted. A lower price doesn't change that. Among robot vacuums, the eufy X10 Pro Omni is the sort of machine Which? says is often discounted at these events. Remember the Samsung Jet Bot, though, which was cheaper in May and June than in the sale. Check the price chart, not the deal badge.

When is Black Friday 2026 in the UK?

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

Are Black Friday deals actually cheaper?

Some are, but the day itself isn't special. When Which? tracked Black Friday 2024, it found 83 per cent of products were cheaper or the same price at other times. Not one was at its cheapest on the day. A deal is real when the price is below what the listing has recently cost, not just below a crossed-out "was" price.

Can I return a Black Friday purchase?

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