Among the actors of the world of commerce, everyone did not agree on a deferral balances : department stores, weighed down by their stockpiles after two months of cessation of activity, wanted to settle as quickly as possible, when the self-employed or smaller businesses wanted them, avoid breaking the price too quickly, and wanted to delay the balances at the end of August. In mid-may, the president of the Confederation of traders of France, Francis Palombi, has requested a deferral account balances as at 22 July that "the traders who have not been able to sell and pay for their products in the spring to resume" selling their stock "at a fair price with a normal profit margin". He had also hoped that "the promotions are frozen a month before the sale", to avoid "weakening even more the very small enterprises and small traders". The promotions have not been frozen, since many brands have begun to propose good business excluding the sales from the déconfinement, to lighten their inventories, and trying to re-create economic health.

While they should in theory start on Wednesday 24 June 2020, summer 2020 have been postponed to Monday, 15 July . They should, therefore, take the end of the 11 August for most of the French departments. These balances will also last for four weeks instead of six, a shortened duration again in force since the winter sale 2020, under the effect of the Law Covenant. This term applies to all French overseas departments, although 4 departments of metropolitan france (see the list below) are covered by a waiver for the dates of summer sale :

Exception of Mayotte (976) and Guyane (973), which have the same dates in the majority of summer sales in metropolitan France, the overseas territories are, in theory, concerned with the dates of derogation the following (decided prior to the pandemic of Covid-19) :

NOTE : in Saint-Barthélémy and Saint-Martin, what are the balances of winter 2020 (not 2021), which takes place from Saturday 2 may to Friday 29 may 2020. As for the Meeting, she sees a contrario getting the summer sale long before us since they lasted from Saturday 1 February to Friday 28 February 2020. The island will have to wait until Saturday 5 September 2020 to ensure that the winter sale is going on until Friday, October 2, 2020.

If the dates of the balances are imposed to the merchants by the legislation in force, these latter are free to choose the dates from which they carry out greater discounts. Each retailer decides the date of the 2nd apart, some choosing to make a 3rd. In general, the stores display new discount from the second week of the balances.

watch out for fake discounts ! : the reference prices posted on the sites selling online can be misleading. The slashed price may thus give rise to a "false discount" when it has been inflated artificially, which causes a gap that is attractive between the old and the new amount. To take precautions in the face of this process is widespread, the consumer association UFC - que choisir advises "compare offers from various retailers before making the purchase, to make the idea of "accurate as possible" the base cost of the product.

The price comparison, valuable allies : Idealo is part of price comparison sites online considered to be independent, which weighs the prices of a same product on a large number of sites in order to protect themselves from the "false discount". It lists hundreds of millions of deals offered by tens of thousands of merchants. Of course there are other price comparison websites are considered reliable, such as Kelkoo, Icomparateur, leDénicheur.

How to recognize a site illegal ? : If it is not a site that is very known, here are a few sure ways to ensure that the cybertrader through which you intend to make a purchase is safe. Start by verifying that the site on which you will be using your credit card is secure, ensuring that the url address of the site in question begins with "https". Then, look for on the site the link to the legal notices. These last are mandatory. If you can't find them, it is that this site is not legal. The consumer association UFC que choisir advises lastly to choose a seller who is based in France, as "a remedy will be more complicated if the company is abroad".