Fas fines for violating the law on advertising and how to avoid them

Before you read the article, we offer you to take a test that will take no more than four minutes. We offer to evaluate whether your company can get on penalties for advertising violations. To do this, answer what kind of advertising, in your opinion, violates the law? Correct answers at the end of the article.

Experts note that the legal literacy of businessmen is growing every year. However, legislation is changing dynamically, and some amendments are interpreted in two ways. Only an experienced lawyer can keep track of innovations or see a gap in regulations. For example, Federal Law No. 38-FZ “On Advertising” was adopted back in 2006, but disputes around it in the business environment have not subsided so far. Entrepreneurs consider the law harsh and inconvenient: there are so many restrictions that it is unrealistic to meet all the requirements.

The head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, Igor Artemyev, said in an interview that the agency wins 98% of "advertising" proceedings (table). Reason: when promoting products, companies do not take into account the nuances that eventually lead to complaints from competitors and meticulous customers to the antimonopoly service and fines (Figure 1). Entrepreneurs are also frightened by the Federal Law of July 26, 2006 No. 135-FZ “On Protection of Competition”, which is also violated by the FAS. However, fear is often generated by ignorance. When promoting products, companies do not take into account the nuances that eventually lead to complaints from competitors to the antimonopoly service and FAS fines for violating the law on advertising. Let's look at common violations (Figure 2) and figure out how companies can protect themselves (sample document).

Unique but non-obvious services

The Smolensk Medical Center launched a video clip on the radio with the following text: “Instant electrocardiogram with decoding in just two or three minutes? Yes! This is real! Only at Guinea Medical Center can you undergo an ECG and get the results on the same day!”. But such a service was also provided in other medical institutions of the city: they deciphered the cardiogram on the day of treatment.

Guinea tried to prove that its proposal is unique: the transcript is done online, the result with comments is ready by the end of the procedure. But this information was not in the text of the video, so the company was obliged to remove the advertisement from the air within ten days.

Conclusion. If you want to emphasize the competitive advantage of a product, choose your wording carefully. Clearly describe the features of your product or service. Just make sure that other companies don't offer the same thing first.