ALBANIAN DELEGATION LEARNED ABOUT CONSUMER PROTECTION IN ADVERTISING

Chief Experts of Unfair Commercial Practices Investigation Division shared the Competition Council‘s experience on misleading and prohibited comparative advertising with the Albanian Consumer Protection Commission.

The Albanian delegation learned about the key provisions of the Law on Advertising which determine the right of advertisers to use correct and accurate advertising claims. The Council‘s experts shared their experience regarding consumer protection in the field of advertising and talked about the findings of the Council‘s recent investigations.

In 2016 the Council analysed 292 complaints related to possibly misleading advertising, examined 107 ads on its own initiative and sent 158 notifications to advertisers regarding suspected misleading advertising. Failure to terminate allegedly misleading advertising or repeated use of misleading claims may lead to an investigation and, in cases of infringement, fines for the companies. Last year the Council found 5 breaches of the Law on Avertising and imposed fines varying from EUR 4,938 to EUR 8,688.

The study visit of the Albanian Consumer Protection Commission and its Technical Secretariat was hosted by the Ministry of Justice and the State Consumer Rights Protection Authority of the Republic of Lithuania as part of the EU Twinning Project.