KT STARTS TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGEDLY MISLEADING ADVERTISING BY BETA.LT, UAB

Having received a complaint, according to which,productprices indicated on Beta.lt, UAB website www.grupinis.lt may mislead consumers, the Competition Council (Konkurencijos taryba, KT) started to investigate this allegedly misleading advertisement.

Beta.lt, UAB presents the prices of products sold online as significantly lower than their value indicated alongside. The KT suspects that the indicated value may be unjustified and, thus, mislead consumers as they would get the wrong impression that the products are sold for a significantly lower price in comparison to everywhere else.

Moreover, according to a certain advertisement disseminated by Beta.lt, UAB, the time to purchase a product for a special price was limited, however, later it was extended. Such advertisement could have created an impression that a product will only be available on particular terms for a very limited time and, thus, could have encourage consumers to purchase it as soon as possible, despite the fact that the actual period of time to purchase the product had been longer.

Having regard to the circumstances concerned and pursuant to the Law on Advertising, the KT will evaluate whether the disseminated information about the value of products and the validity of the time allocated for the purchase of the product may mislead consumers.

The launched investigation indicates that there are grounds for a suspicion of an infringement; however, it does not mean that the infringement in question exists.

Notes

(1) Misleading advertising means advertising which in any way, including its presentation, misleads or is likely to mislead the persons to whom it is addressed or whom it reaches and which, by reason of its misleading nature, is likely to affect their economic behaviour or which, for those reasons, harms or is likely to harm another person’s capabilities to compete (Law on Advertising, Article 2(3)).

(2) Commercial practices are misleading if they manifest as false claiming that a product will only be available for a very limited time, or that it will only be available on particular terms for a very limited time, in order to elicit an immediate decision and deprive consumers of sufficient opportunity or time to make an informed choice (Law on prohibition of unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices, Article 7(7)).

Communication Division