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THE Association of Advertising Agencies (AAA) is to ask for amendments to Article 34 of the Competition Protection Act, which regulates the staging of advertising games and promotions.
This was announced after a meeting of AAA representatives with the Competition Protection Commission (CPC). They met to clarify the rules for staging advertising games, and avoiding law breaches related to promotions and campaigns.
In recent months, several large fines have been imposed by the anti-trust commission on some of the biggest trading companies in Bulgaria, for arranging games with prizes that cost many times more than the goods they sell.
One of the proposals made by the AAA that was discussed at the meeting was to raise the minimum threshold that CPC takes into account when imposing fines.
Another idea was to hold the promotions in two stages, offering small gifts at the first stage, and at the second stage, when the more expensive prizes are given, to not require competitors to buy the products involved in the promotion. This way, companies would not break the law. The AAA proposed that an independent agency be asked to research the actual effect of advertising on consumers. According to a CPC interpretation, in such cases the customer is attracted not by the quality of the product, but by the prizes, resulting in abuses of the market competition rules.
The commission criteria in imposing fines for unfair competition were also discussed at the meeting. The CPC is insisting that the fines be defined according to each individual case, taking into account factors like the financial state of the violator, terms and methods of how the advertising game is conducted, along with other factors.
The extremely high penalties that CPC imposed on Coca-Cola and Zagorka were for recurring violations, said Elena Dimova, head of the CPC’s Unfair Competition Directorate.
In early February, Coca-Cola Bulgaria was fined 100 000 leva for a game it held last summer under the title “Order a reward! Keep the cap!” Customers were asked to buy Coca-Cola beverages, and by sending in the caps of the bottles, were eligible to win DVD players, cars and apartments. The value of the prizes was drastically higher than the price of a bottle of soft drink.
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on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 1:36 am and is filed under Advertising, Consumer Attorney.
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