Friday 16 November 2012

Facts and figures on misleading advertising

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.'