Commercials is any form or any mode of announcement or endeavour associated with economic or professional activity, intended to promote the popularity of or demand for goods or services.
Commercials shall be lawful, truthful and objective and it shall be created in accordance with ethical Commercials practices.
Commercials shall not reduce public confidence in Commercials and it shall comply with the principles of fair competition.
Only such announcements or visual representations as do not breach generally accepted ethical, humanitarian, morality, decency and propriety norms, shall be permitted to be included in Commercials.
Prohibited Commercials
Violence and war propaganda shall not be permitted in Commercials.
In Commercials, it is prohibited:
- to express discrimination against a person due to his or her race, skin colour, gender, age, religious, political or other convictions, national or social origin, financial status or other circumstances;
- to exploit the effect created by fear or superstition;
- to exploit in bad faith the trust of a person and his or her lack of experience or knowledge;
- to depict, use or in any other way mention either a natural person (as a private person or as an official) or his or her property without the consent of this person;
- to defame, disparage or ridicule another person, or the activities, name (firm name), goods or services, or trademarks of another person;
- to exploit the name, surname, name (firm name) or other identifying designation (including a trade mark) of another entrepreneur without the consent of the entrepreneur;
- to imitate the commercial text, slogan, visual representation, audio or other special effects of another advertiser without the consent of the advertiser or to carry out any other forms of activities which may create confusion or mislead regarding the advertiser and the advertised goods or services.
Commercials directed to children or commercials which have been created with the participation of children shall not threaten the rights or interests of children and in its creation, regard shall be had to the perception and psyche of children.
Exploiting the natural credulity or lack of experience of children in Commercials is prohibited.
Exploiting children in alcoholic beverage and tobacco product Commercials, and aiming alcoholic beverage and tobacco product Commercials at children, are prohibited.
In Commercials directed to children, it is prohibited:
- to include assertions, or visual or audio information, which could cause moral or physical harm to them or create feelings of inferiority;
- to include encouragement for or encourage aggressiveness and violence, and discredit the authority of parents, guardians or teachers;
- to draw attention to the fact that the acquisition of specific goods or services creates physical, social or psychological advantages over peers or that the lack of the relevant good creates the opposite result;
- to unmistakably indicate that the acquisition of the good or service to be advertised is possible for any family, irrespective of its budget;
- to directly invite children themselves or invite children to encourage their parents or other persons to purchase goods or use services; and
- to portray children in dangerous situations.
Examples:
CRPC applied an administrative penalty because of the prohibited Commercial of alcoholic beverages (Handling of Alcoholic Beverages Law). It was because those advertisements gave the impression, that alcoholic beverage possesses stimulating effects and it can help in solving personal problems.
CRPC applied an administrative penalty because of Commercials, which showed that legal services were offered with a 50% discount to Russian-speaking persons and that there would be no services to persons belonging to sexual minorities. With Commercial texts “50% discount to Russian-speaking persons” and “no services to persons belonging to sexual minorities” services are offered by sorting persons by prohibited criteria – race, ethnical origin and sexual orientation.
Misleading Commercials
Misleading commercials are such Commercials as in any manner, including its manner of presentation, is directly or indirectly misleading or may be misleading and due to its misleading character, may affect the economic behaviour of a person, or is harmful or may be harmful to a competitor.
Misleading commercials are prohibited.
In determining whether commercials are misleading, all its aspects shall be considered – individual components and overall content and design and, particularly, any information that is offered in the Commercials regarding:
- accessibility, properties, operation, content, manufacturing or distribution method and date, purpose, usage, quantity or the effect on the environment or human health of goods or services, the geographical or commercial origins or the results which are expected from the use of goods, or the results of tests or inspections, or material features of goods or services;
- the price or method for calculating price and the conditions under which goods are supplied or services are provided; and
- the advertiser, including the identity and good characteristics, qualifications, property rights or awards of the advertiser.
The main task of Commercials is to generate demand for a commodity or service. That is why it’s common to see Commercials highlighting commodities’ or services’ positive characteristics, exaggerating or even accrediting non-existent characteristics and holding back negative characteristics, thereby making Commercials misleading.
A person’s economic action may be influenced by misleading advertisement - a person may be drawn to buy a commodity or service which he/she in different conditions wouldn’t have bought.
Example:
CRPC recognized commercials with the slogan “How I without any effort or restriction lost 33 kg of weight” to be misleading. Commercials incorporated the following textual information: “Weight reduction: What is in the composition of medication, why it allows losing of weight fast and without any diet?”; “You don’t need to do anything special. You don’t need to take medicine or give up any of your favourite food. The only thing, that you must do to be able to lose as much as 1 kg of excessive body mass per day, is to use a few AMIX 200 pellets per day”
In commercials, among other things, the description of the product was given, as well as a description of the ordering method. Taking into consideration information provided by case examination, CRPC established that the given product does not possess accredited characteristics to lose weight without any diet. CRPC declared Commercials to be misleading because by accrediting this characteristic, the economic action of many people, who are overweight, would be unfoundedly influenced.
