Advertising area

Melinda Comănici Kristina Maliaviciute

Marloes De Beck Ifeoma Momah

Claudia Dinga
Lúcia Kiss
 Introduction
Hey trader !!
Do you know that “you have the right to remain silent; whatever you
say, can and will be used against you ? ”

You can use advertising to pass your information, to increase

your sales and to improve your image to the consumers. You can get in
touch with them via advertising! But there are important rules and you
have to keep them. Without it consumers will lose their trust in you and
you can’t sell your products to them.

We will present you some cases where we reflect to the

consumers that they have to be well informed and how they can enforce
their rights.
With this brochure we can help you to understand the different
sides of the consumers and to make a good relationship with them.
 Case 1: Misleading actions
(deceptive information)
 Situation:
◦ A company offers communication services which launched a promotional
campaign for one of its mobile phone subscriptions
◦ They announced the possibility of receiving 1000 free minutes
◦ The 1000 minutes in reality were not a bonus,
◦ and were offered in return for subscribing to
◦ the service.

 Solution :
◦ The Court considered the promotional materials
to be misleading advertising, because it contained
false information and is therefore untruthful.
 Case 2: Comparative advertising
 Situation
◦ 2 Belgian shops: Lidl and Colruyt
◦ Colruyt – mailshots - costumers
 Customers could have saved important amount
 Compared daily prices – no product list
◦ Lidl – unfair advertisement of Colruyt contrary to the
Comparative Advertising Directive

 Solution
◦ Fair comparative advertising
◦ ECJ – four of the eight test
 Case 3: Misleading advertising
 Situation
◦ DVD company sells discs, where you can get free ticket to go to
the cinema, buying a dvd disc you get a free ticket and a signed
poster of a famous actor;
◦ the DVD company did not disclose information that customers
will be able to see for the movie and use invitation to the film
only if they buy one more ticket to the cinema.

 Solution
◦ Misleading advertising affects relationship
between the advertiser and the consumer,
the information influences your
consumers’ decision.
 Case 4: Misleading
Omissions

 Situation:
◦ I bought a blackberry phone but I didnt know that I was supposed to
pay monthly/ weekly to use the Blackberry Messenger.
◦ I cant use it unless I have subscribed for a monthly/ weelkly
package.

 Solution:
◦ The Blackberry phone company should have told me that I had to
pay to use the Blackberry Messenger.
◦ According to the Unfair Commercial practices Directive the trader
should provide all the material Information about his product in a
clear, unambiguous, timely manner’ if not he will face penalties.
 Case 5: Misleading advertising
“starting at” price case
 Situation
◦ The plaintiff is a travel agency that had distributed
advertisements offering certain travel tours with a
specific "starting at" price. However, when approached,
the plaintiff had no actual tours to the destinations at
the proclaimed lowest "starting at" price.

 Solution
◦ The Consumer Rights Protection Centre (CRPC) found this to constitute an unfair
commercial practice.
◦ As a professional trader you must not make an invitation to purchase products at a specified
price and then refuse to show the advertised item to consumers, unless you want your
consumer to take you on court for not complying with the Unfair Commercial Practice
Directive
 Case 6: Aggressive commercial
practices for children
 Situation
◦ There is a father and his little son, who really likes to watch television.
◦ The boy often asks for gummy bear, because a rabbit eats that in his
favourite commercial as well. The father buys him this sweets.
The real buyers are the adults, not the children.

 Solution
◦ We can find in Unfair Commercial Practices: “Including in an
advertisement a direct exhortation to children to buy advertised products
or persuade their parents or other adults to buy advertised products for
them”.
◦ So, if you do not stop advertising to children,
than for sure you will be obliged to pay moral
compensations to all the parents that will
complain against you!
Thank you for your attention