How does United States mark Shopping Festivals?
Black Friday
- Local date
- November 27, 2026
- When is it?
- The day after the fourth Thursday in November, the day after Thanksgiving.
There is no such day as Black Friday in United States federal law. The day with legal standing is the one before it: Thanksgiving Day, listed among the federal holidays at 5 U.S.C. 6103. The Office of Personnel Management's schedules put it on Thursday 26 November 2026, Thursday 25 November 2027 and Thursday 23 November 2028; the Friday that follows is an ordinary working day for federal employees. What does reach the discounts is the Federal Trade Commission's Guides Against Deceptive Pricing, 16 CFR Part 233, published on 8 November 1967 and barely touched since. Section 233.1 says a former price may be used for comparison only if it was "the actual, bona fide price at which the article was offered to the public on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time"; where "an artificial, inflated price was established for the purpose of enabling the subsequent offer of a large reduction", the bargain is a false one. Note the word: these are *guides*, interpretations of section 5 of the FTC Act, and they name no look-back period at all. The Commission's newer fee rule, 16 CFR Part 464, in force since 2025, does require the total price up front — but its definition of a covered good or service reaches only live-event tickets and short-term lodging. Retail goods sit outside it.
Cyber Monday
- Local date
- November 30, 2026
- When is it?
- The first Monday after the fourth Thursday in November, the Monday after Thanksgiving.
Cyber Monday falls on the Monday after Thanksgiving: 30 November 2026, 29 November 2027, 27 November 2028. It is not a federal holiday either, and no federal regulation has ever been written for it — the name began as a trade-association marketing coinage. Even the statistics are absent: the Census Bureau publishes retail e-commerce quarterly and has never issued a single-day figure, so every record-breaking Cyber Monday number in the press is a private estimate rather than an official measurement. Where the government does appear on that day, it appears as law enforcement. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center issues a holiday shopping alert each year before Thanksgiving; the one dated 15 November 2023 (I-111523-PSA) reported that in the 2022 holiday season alone almost 12,000 victims filed non-payment or non-delivery complaints, with losses of more than $73 million.
What is this topic?
Shopping festivals are the one kind of festival the retail trade invented for itself and the state had to regulate afterwards. Federal law in the United States knows Thanksgiving but has never heard of Black Friday. China's market regulator writes to the platforms every year and fixes the reference price for a discount at the lowest transaction price of the previous seven days. Indonesia's Harbolnas carries the trade ministry's name, and the minister himself sells on livestream. India regulates not the discount but the interface. Buy the same thing on the same day and the answer to "can I send it back, for how long, and who pays the postage" is different in every market.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.