On March, 13th Pázmány Péter
Catholic University and the Hungarian Competition Law Research Centre organized
the Second Annual Conference on the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. The
once-a-year meetings aim at sharing national experiences with the regulations,
which transpose the UCP Directive to national law systems, among experts and
academics from various Member States.
This year the conference focused on special forms of
unfair commercial practices: health claims and ‘up to’ claims. Nevertheless, three
contributions gave a general overview of the unfair commercial practices
regulations and practice. Sophie Ridoux (DG Justice EU Commission, Brussels) presented
the main conclusions of the Commission's Report on the application of the UCP
Directive and the revision of the 2009 UCP Directive Guidance. Attila Kőhalmi (member
of the Competition Council) spoke on the importance of UCP cases for the
Hungarian Competition Authority. Additionally, Professor Spencer W. Waller
(Loyola School of Law, Chicago) assessed class action system in the U.S. as helping
consumers receive compensation upon being victimized by misleading advertising.
Two authors of this blog were honoured to be speakers.
I (Monika Namysłowska, University of Lodz) presented the Polish experience with
health claims which unfortunately become more and more frequently a subject of
an unfair commercial practice. Since Poland takes an infamous first place in
Europe in the number of medicines bought per head, it does not surprise that
the use of (unfair) health claims to tempt consumers is attractive to the
advertisers.
Joasia Luzak (CSECL, University of Amsterdam) discussed the Dutch
experiences with ‘up to’ claims. While there are quite a few cases of the Dutch
self-regulator, the RCC (Reclame Code Commissie), estimating potential
misleading character of advertising statements that a purchase of a certain
good or service would save consumers ‘up to’ a certain amount of money, there
seems not to be a specific standard how to assess their unfairness. Such claims
may need to be given a closer look by the academics and regulators in order to
come up with a fairness standard that would protect consumers, not obscure
marketing and guarantee legal certainty. For all speakers see:
http://www.ucpdirective.com
We hope to join the Third Annual Conference on the
UCPD next year and to participate in future numerous inspiring discussions on
the unfairness, as well as to enjoy the beautiful city of Budapest further.
