Legal Literature

Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Chapter 2, Section 1, Article 6, 1., (a)

The article discusses comparative advertising in the light of specific European directives including the UCP Directive and judicial decisions of the European Union. It also provides an overview of the implementation into the Slovak legal system.

The author points out the risk of potential hindering of the smooth functioning of the internal market due to the differences between the legal provisions of the Member States related to unfair commercial practices. The author states that the UCP Directive approximates the legal regulations of the Member States concerning unfair commercial practices (including unfair advertising) which directly harm the economic interests of the consumers and, by doing so, indirectly harm the interest of the participants of the economic competition.

The author further states that the UCP Directive protects the consumers form unfair commercial practices in accordance with the principle of proportionality, but at the same time it does not apply and has no influence on the intrastate legal regulations on unfair business.

The author further proceeds to describe the relationship of the UCP Directive with the Directive 84/450/EEC on misleading advertising delineating the difference of its application towards traders and consumers.