UAB „POREKTUS“ REPEATEDLY FINED BY THE COMPETITION COUNCIL FOR MISLEADING ADVERTISING

The Competition Council passed the decision to impose a fine of LTL 45 000 upon UAB „Porektus“ for the use of misleading advertising. The fine was imposed in accordance with the requirements of Article 5 of the Law on Advertising and having regard to the circumstances extenuating the liability of the advertising operator: the violation of the Law has been committed repeatedly over the year for which a fine had been imposed upon the same operator. In April 2004 the Competition Council had recognised the advertising statements disseminated by UAB „Porektus“ on M. Drozd method of overweight loss as misleading and had subjected the Company to a fine of LTL 30 000. The Company had appealed this resolution of the Competition Council to Court but the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court rejected the appeal and upheld the decision of the Competition Council.

In September 2004, the Competition Council ex officio initiated the investigation concerning the actions of UAB „Porektus“ owned by France-based international „Padel France Communisation“ group while advertising a weight-loss method. This method was advertised as result of an incidental revelation of the secret by the French nutrition specialist Michel Montignac who claims to have found a method to loose weight rapidly without any diet, medicine or „Metabol Plus“ pills which boosts metabolism. The Competition Council has determined that certain statements used in the weight-loss advertisement, such as „Using this method your body weight will decrease by 19 kg in 4 weeks without any diet, exercise or medicine“, „Hundreds of doctors and scientists have proven that here we are talking of the most efficient method known up till now“, „My method will help turn fat into energy and get rid of it completely“, „Metabol Plus“ course affects you as an anti-weight vaccine. No more boomerang effect“, and other similar statements were used to induce consumers seeking to reduce their body weight to order the method advertised. This could affect the economic behaviour of consumers. It has been established that UAB „Porektus“ was using a misleading, unsubstantiated information on the possibilities of Michel Montignac and „Metabol Plus“ pills, since the Company was no able to produce any data substantiating the accuracy of the advertising statements at the time of their use.

Having concluded in its resolution that UAB „Porektus“ had violated the requirements of Article 5 of the Law on Advertising and imposed a monetary fine in the amount of LTL 45 000 upon the Company the Competition Council also obligated the Company to forthwith cease the use of the misleading advertisements and issue, in the established manner, a corrective statement in those press publications in which the advertising has been published.