This deceptive ad is by Delhaize this week. Notice that the price 12.58/kg appears ambiguous as to whether that is a regular price or the effective promo price. The last line has a strikethrough (12.58) with 6.29 in bold. So the non-meticulous mind quickly assumes 12.58/kg must be the regular price due to the strikethrough on the next line. A price of 6.29/kg would be what you would expect on a 1+1 because pure maple syrup is normally twice that. Only a rare meticulous reader would read the footnote for * which says the price already factors in the promo. And that the “/2” means for 2 bottles. I wonder what percentage of readers get tricked by this.

So strictly speaking Delhaize did not lie. It merely uses deception in this case. Considering Jury d’Ethique Publicitaire (JEP) does not act on bluntly false ads, it certainly would not act on this.

Aldi’s regular price on Trader Joe’s maple syrup: €4 for 250ml/330g (effectively €12.12/kg). So Aldi’s regular price is actually better than Delhaize’s promo that tricks you into buying 2 bottles. But I should point out that Aldi North (the only Aldi branch in Belgium) supports Israel, as does Delhaize.