Around March 15, the industrial and commercial departments increased their efforts to rectify advertising. As a legal consultant, I conducted advertising legal risk training for many companies and websites. Judging from the training situation, many companies are responsible for advertising and marketing work. The legal awareness of the staff is not very strong yet. The following is an analysis of the legal risks of common website advertising.
1. The promises made in the propaganda cannot be fulfilled. The most typical example in this regard is Beijing Hyundai Motor. In relevant promotional articles, the person in charge of the company promised not to reduce the price of a certain car for two years. Unexpectedly, the market situation suddenly changed. Less than 120 days after the car was launched, the car was forced to The price reduction resulted in a class action lawsuit filed by users. Although the court found out that the media reports were inconsistent with the words of the person in charge of the company and ruled that the company did not need to bear responsibility, the status of its brand in the minds of consumers has plummeted. The author believes that the company In this case, the loss of intangible assets of Hyundai Brand was far greater than the amount claimed by users. In the final analysis, this case was caused by over-promises in product marketing. Therefore, the author would like to remind the relevant companies that you can eat more than you can eat, and it is best to think carefully before making any promises.
Relevant Internet companies should also pay attention to being cautious when making promises to consumers. If the promise cannot be fulfilled, it is considered to be ill-considered at best, or misleading and false propaganda at worst. If a customer discovers that a company has been dishonest, it is likely that they will sue the company based on the Contract Law and the Consumer Rights Protection Law, taking the company's publicity as a contractual agreement. Even if the customer does not sue the company, competitors will use this loophole to maliciously make promises. In the event of failure, publicity and exposure will obviously be very embarrassing for the company. In the competitive environment of the early stage of China's market economy, such malicious speculation was not uncommon. However, the relevant companies had poor ability to learn from others' lessons. Cases in this regard are common.
2. Issues of superlative terms and unfair competition. Many companies, especially highly competitive online game companies, like to use superlative terms such as the biggest, the strongest, and the most fun in their promotions. This kind of formulation actually violates the provisions of many laws and carries great risks. . First of all, the "Advertising Law" prohibits the use of superlatives in advertising, and you may be subject to administrative penalties if you use it. Secondly, if your product is not the largest and most powerful but pretends to be the largest and most powerful, it may constitute an "anti-unfair" violation. "Competition Law" and "Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law" stipulate false propaganda, and the industrial and commercial authorities impose very high penalties for such violations. Moreover, Internet companies are particularly at risk in this regard, because the investigation and handling of such cases by some industrial and commercial authorities is not limited to local areas. As far as the cases handled by the author are concerned, Internet companies in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai often suffer from the above-mentioned superlative terms and false propaganda issues. Punished by the industrial and commercial authorities in Hunan Province.
3. The quoted data has no source. The Advertising Law stipulates that advertisements using data, statistics, survey results, abstracts, and quotations must be true and accurate, and the source must be indicated. Many companies use a lot of data in their promotions, but intentionally or unintentionally ignore the source of the data. For example, in the promotion of commercial mailboxes recently launched by a website, "the spam interception rate is 98%, and the share of personal free mailboxes and personal paid mailboxes ranks first in the market", "the current spam interception rate is as high as 98%, and the misjudgment rate Only one in 100,000, "Virus email filtering is close to 100%", "In terms of service, ** is the only Internet company to win the "China's Best Customer Service Award" and other data and information, but no source is provided. .
Different from traditional media advertising display methods, many website promotional articles do not indicate themselves as advertisements, but in fact they are still subject to the Advertising Law, the Consumer Rights Protection Law, the Product Quality Law, and the Consumer Rights Protection Law. Law and Anti-Unfair Competition Law and other laws. According to relevant laws, if such publicity is not careful and irregular, it will not only lead to lawsuits from consumers and malicious hype from competitors, but also may lead to be punished by relevant administrative authorities. Therefore, enterprises should regulate their online publicity behaviors in accordance with the law, and when necessary, they can consult professional legal service agencies.