Powers of the Competition Council in supervision of the Advertising Law

To ensure promotion of fair competition in advertising sphere, one of tasks of the Competition Council is to supervise compliance of activities, provided by market participants, with regulations laid down by the Advertising Law.

Powers of the Competition Council include examination of cases on possible violations of the Advertising Law, if:

• advertising disseminated by the market participant is misleading in its contents, design or kind of its performance and may create damages to competitor. Prohibition of misleading advertising is provided by the Section 8 of the Advertising Law;
• advertising disseminated by the market participant directly or indirectly identifies the competitor, i.e. comparative advertising is created and it does not comply with provisions for comparative advertisings, laid down by the Section 9 of the Advertising Law.

Competitors frequently misuse or through their ignorance contravene conditions of comparative advertising as well as create misleading advertisings, which do not comply with practices of decent advertising and principles of fair advertising. The Competition Council has powers to prohibit dissemination of such advertisings, to bind over an obligation to disseminate withdrawal of advertising and to impose fines.

Other institutions supervising application of Adwertising Law

Consumer Rights Protection Centre 
www.ptac.lv

State Pharmacy Inspectorate
www.farminsp.gov.lv

National Broadcasting Council of Latvia
www.nrtp.lv