„MECOM GRUPP“ WARNED AND „TELE2“ FINED FOR THE INFRINGEMENT OF THE LAW ON ADVERTISING

The Competition Council in its meeting examined the findings of the completed investigations and conducted a hearing of the parties concerned and passed the resolutions recognising the advertising statements as constituting pieces of misleading advertising.

On the basis of the requirements of Article 5 of the Law on Advertising the Competition Council recognised as misleading the advertising statement used by  UAB „Mecom Grupp claiming: „Cut out the coupon and pick up your LTL 18 bonus in the bar Bumerangas. No extra conditions“. This advertising statement was published in the magazine Ekspres nedelia. For the infringement of the Law on Advertising UAB Mecom Grupp was subjected by the Competition Council to an administrative sanction – a warning; furthermore, the company was obligated to discontinue the use of the misleading advertising.

The Competition Council concluded that the statement published in the advertising offering a LTL 18 bonus to visitors who could produce a coupon cut out from the magazine without any additional conditions was misleading, because actually bonus was given to the visitors according concrete conditions. Instead, producing the coupons visitors of Bumerangas bars were given two copies of a booklet Premijų pasas (Bonus passport) informing that two persons coming to the bar on a three occasions could treat themselves to drinks serviced in the bar (coffee and cocktails). In the opinion of the Competition Council the bonus indicated in the advertising statement was a sufficiently material criterion and a marketing tool intended to attract potential consumers to visit the Bumerangas bars.

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The Competition Council passed a resolution concerning the compliance of actions of Tele2 with the requirements of the Law on Advertising. The statement related to the service Laisvalaikis offering a LTL 0.10 bonus for each minute call received was recognised as misleading advertising. For the infringement of Article 5 of the Law on Advertising Tele2 was sanctioned to a fine of LTL 10,000. The company was also obligated by the Competition Council to immediately discontinue the use of the misleading advertising in case the actions were still continued.

The Competition Council had conducted this investigation in response to the consumer complaint forwarded to the competition authority by the State Consumer Rights Protection Authority. The findings of the investigation revealed that the advertising published was not complete and for that reason it could mislead the consumers seeking to use the service provided by UAB Tele2 and have an effect upon their economic behaviour when passing the decisions or committing actions related to the ordering and the use of the service. Although the advertising statement claimed that for each minute of the incoming calls consumers will be given a bonus of LTL 0.10, the advertising completely omitted any indication of conditions related to the bonus (e.g., when a subscriber of the payment plan Laisvalaikis of Tele2 calls a subscriber of the payment plan Plepys, or in case of calls from a subscriber with the service Šeima ir draugai, etc.).