On November 12, 2019, the parliament of Ukraine adopted the Law on amending certain legislative acts of Ukraine regarding the harmonization of legislation in the field of comparative advertising with the law of the European Union.
Thus, Ukrainian legislation is brought into conformity with Directive 2006/114/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning misleading and comparative advertising and Directive 2005/29/EU concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market.
From now on, images, references to the product, trademarks or other designations under which the product with which the comparison is made, the commercial (company) name of the competitor can be used advertising materials.
However, restrictions are placed on the use of comparative advertising, in particular:
– it is allowed to compare only similar goods or services from one sphere or one type of activity;
– only an objective comparison of one or more significant, comparable and representative characteristics of a similar good or activity, including their price, is allowed;
– it is forbidden to discredit, provide false information about the quality of similar goods of other manufacturers or sellers, to discredit the activities or position of other persons, the reputation of trademarks, brands (company) names, other features of competitors or indicate the place of origin of goods;
– advertising cannot create a mix between the advertiser and the competitor, between goods, trademarks, brand (company) name and other designations of competitors;
– it is not allowed to imitate competitor goods protected by trademark or brand name.
Responsibility for violation of established requirements regarding the content of comparative advertising lies with the advertiser.
In addition, the provisions of the Law On Consumer Rights Protection of have been clarified in terms of providing the buyer with false or incomplete information, or failure to provide information about the product: its characteristics, price, delivery conditions, operating and warranty conditions, current market conditions, etc.