The results of the European Commission's public consultation on the Directive on Misleading and Comparative Advertising were published yesterday. You may find a full overview of the results here. Summarising, the Commission notes:
'Respondents brought many different cases of misleading marketing
practices to our attention, often involving several Member States. The
most frequent misleading practices are rather similar: A dishonest
trader deceives a victim into giving consent and a contract is concluded
with little or no service in return, but with an exorbitant price and
abusive contractual conditions. Afterwards, the trader uses all possible
means to enforce the payment.
Misleading marketing practices concern mainly
SMEs and independent professionals but other types of businesses and
organisations are also affected. Increasingly fraudsters make use of the
internet.
Most respondents want the European Commission
to increase protection of SMEs and independent professionals against
misleading marketing practices. According to respondents, the biggest
problem is inefficient enforcement of the Misleading and Comparative
Advertising Directive at cross-border level. However, also the
substantive rules are considered too weak and unclear to be effective
against such schemes.'
