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Misleading advertisements might cause expensive fines in Italy as a consequence of recent regulatory changes which increased their value.
Following the coming into force of the EU Directive on unfair commercial practices, companies now understood the need to deeply review claims of their advertising campaigns, marketing materials and prize competitions before they go live to avoid misleading advertisements.
The Directive sanctions any practice able, or potentially able, to mislead or distort the behaviour of consumers because the information provided is for instance not complete, can be misinterpreted or can force consumers to perform purchases that otherwise they would not have carried out.
The law implementing the Directive is also relevant because – at least in Italy – it prescribes sanctions up to € 5,000,000 that can even increase if through the same conduct the advertiser performs a number of different breaches.
Also, the Directive introduced a so called “black list” of circumstances that are in any case unfair and therefore unlawful. Such black list for instance makes reference to the improper use of the term “free” in ads when consumers have to bear any kind of cost to enjoy the free service/product, including the circumstances where there is a mechanic or debiting/crediting of the price of the free product/service.
If you need to review the compliance of your next marketing campaign with Italian law, feel free to contact me, Giulio Coraggio to discuss and follow me on my Facebook page, Twitter, Google+ and become one of my friends on LinkedIn..
Image courtesy of Flickr by Richard Masoner
