Case law

  • Case Details
    • National ID: link
    • Member State: Slovenia
    • Common Name:link
    • Decision type: Court decision, first degree
    • Decision date: 23/12/2015
    • Court: Administrative court
    • Subject:
    • Plaintiff: Unknown
    • Defendant: The Market Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia
    • Keywords: aggressive commercial practices, average consumer, consumer, telephone, TV games
  • Directive Articles
    Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Annex I, 31. Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Annex I, 31., -
  • Headnote
    Creating a false impression that a consumer will win a prize or equivalent benefit, if he calls a premium phone number and answers a question correctly, while the consumer incurs high telephone costs, is considered an aggressive commercial practice.

  • Facts
    On the plaintiff's TV show, the viewers can compete for prizes if they call the listed number (the price of a call is EUR 1.99 per minute) and answer a question correctly. The viewer that calls the phone number and waits for a potential connection with the studio is also charged the costs of calling. The whole show is designed in such a way that the host constantly invites the viewers to participate and raises their hopes that they will win the price. From the perspective of an average consumer, the questions are not difficult and do not require special knowledge, and the prizes offered are very attractive. By waiting to be connected to the studio, the consumers are exposed to very high telephone costs.

  • Legal issue
    The court agreed with the plaintiff that the circumstances should be assessed with reference to Directive 2005/29, however, the court found in view of case C-428/11 that article 31 of the annex of the Directive should be read as a whole, so that "taking any action in relation to claiming the prize or equivalent benefit" should be understood broadly, and that the prohibition of exposing the consumer to additional costs when the prize is concerned is almost absolute. The court concluded that the plaintiff could only succeed if he would prove sufficiently that the quiz was actually conducted without manipulation and that the calls were transferred without any delay, so that the viewers could not get the false impression that no calls were answered and it was therefore very likely that they would win the prize, and that they should wait to be connected and, by that, be exposed to very high costs.
  • Decision

    Is creating a false impression that a consumer will win a prize or equivalent benefit by calling a certain number an answering a question correctly, by which the consumer incurs very high telephone costs, considered an aggressive commercial practice?

    URL: http://www.sodnapraksa.si/?q=id:2015081111392486&database%5bSOVS%5d=SOVS&database%5bIESP%5d=IESP&database%5bVDSS%5d=VDSS&database%5bUPRS%5d=UPRS&_submit=išči&page=0&id=2015081111392486

    Full text: Full text

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  • Result
    The plaintiff's request was denied.