New Act on Advertising and Amendment to the Commercial Code

(Act No. 147/2001 Coll. on Advertising and amending and supplementing certain acts)

This act regulates general requirements for advertising of certain products, protection of consumers and entrepreneurs against the effects of deceptive advertising and inadmissible comparative advertising and the controlling powers of state authorities related to observance of this act.

The act defines basic terms such as advertising, product and propagator, whereas the advertising shall mean a presentation of products in any form with the intention to introduce them on the market. The act also contains a negative definition of the advertising. Pursuant to the above, for example the following shall not be considered as the advertising: designation of letter-heads or envelopes with the business name or trademark, marking of seat of a legal entity or permanent address of a natural person, designation of operation unit or branch office of a legal entity or natural person by its business name, etc. The product shall mean goods, services, real estates, business name, trademark, designation of origin and other rights and liabilities related to business.

The act stipulates general requirements for advertising, according to which the advertising has to be, inter alia, in compliance with good manners and rules of economic competition, cannot be deceptive or hidden. In addition to the above, the act is a consumer protective by prohibition of certain types of advertising, protects human dignity, equality of human beings and human health. The advertising cannot contain any kind of sex, race and social origin discrimination, nor propagate violence, vandalism, or vileness, and entice to illegal acts, or agree with such acts.

The advertising cannot be circulated by an automatic call system, telefax and electronic mail without a prior consent of the user of such appliance which receives such advertising. The advertising cannot be addressed to a particular person, if the person has rejected delivery of such advertising in advance.

Under certain conditions, the act admits the comparative advertising. The comparative advertising shall mean the advertising, which directly or indirectly mentions another competitor or its products. The comparative advertising is allowed only, if it:

1. compares products which meet the same needs, or which are designed for the same purpose,
2. objectively compares one or more specific, typical, material and verifiable attributes of products, including their price; in case of products containing a designation of origin, it compares only products of the same designation,
3. differs the competitors and their products sufficiently so that their interchange is not possible,
4. does not impeach the competitors, their situation, acts, products or other differentiating criteria,
5. does not use without authorisation the advantage of good name of the product or other differentiating criteria of the competitor,
6. does not represent the product as an imitation or counterfait of the product protected by trademark or business name,
7. is not deceptive.

The act further regulates the advertising of alcoholic beverages, prohibits the advertising of tobacco products, weapons and munition and selected categories of medicaments. The act also stipulates restrictions of the advertising of nursing feed and subsequent supplementary appliances.

The Slovak Agricultural and Food Inspection, the State Institution for Control of Medicaments, the State Institution for Control of Veterinary Medicaments and the Slovak Business Inspection, which are the state controlling authorities over the observance of the act on advertising, may impose on the propagator of the advertising a penalty up to the amount of SKK 2,000,000 for breach of certain general requirements for advertising. A penalty up to the amount of SKK 5,000,000 may be imposed on a person which has ordered a deceptive advertising or an inadmissible comparative advertising.

In connection with enactment of the act on advertising, also the provisions of the Commercial Code related to the deceptive advertising have been amended. The amendment has introduced a new definition of the deceptive advertising, according to which the deceptive advertising shall mean the advertising of goods, services, real estates, business name, trademark, designation of origin, and other rights and liabilities related to business, which misleads or may mislead the persons, for which it is intended, or to which it is presented and which may, as a result of its deceptive nature, influence the economic behaviour of such persons or which impairs or may impair another competitor or consumer.

This act is in force from 1 May 2001.

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