Supervisors info:
Παπαρσενίου Παρασκευή, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια Νομικού Τμήματος Νομικής Σχολής Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών
Λέκκας Γεώργιος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής Νομικού Τμήματος Νομικής Σχολής Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών
Γεωργιάδης Γεώργιος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής Νομικού Τμήματος Νομικής Σχολής Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών
Summary:
The purpose of this study is to examine misleading advertising and the protection afforded to the consumers by the european and national legislators, by examining the legal context in which those practices fall and the interpretation of the letter of the law, given by the Court of Justice of the European Union. The first part of our study deals with the Directive 2005/29/EC, which replaced the Directive 84/450/EEC, while the second part deals with the protection of the consumer in the hellenic law and in particular in the articles 9a et seq. of Law 2251/1994, as amended by the law 3587/2007, which incorporated into the Law on Consumer Protection the Directive 2005/29/EC on unfair commercial practices.
Misleading advertising and advertising in general was one of the first issues that the Consumer Law dealt with on a european level. Thus, one of the first Directives adopted by the European Council was the one of 10 September 1984, Directive 84/450/EEC, on the theoretical basis of Article 3 (2) in the Treaty of Rome. This Directive was adopted with the goal of achieving a minimum level of protection for the consumer from misleading advertising and of containing a minimum of the elements that constitute a misleading advertisement. In addition, the aim of the Directive was to harmonize national laws on unfair competition, an aim which, as will be revealed in the study of the existing law, is largely missing from the Directive 2005/29/EC, of which the central the focus is on the consumer and their protection.
As will also be emphasized in this study, the applicable law of misleading advertising incorporates misleading advertising in the context of unfair commercial practices, without distinguishing the advertisement as a specific type of commercial practice. In this way, a more comprehensive and effective protection of the consumer is achieved, even from those practices that do not fall within the narrow definition of advertising, which, due to the continuous technological advancement of the recent years, is constantly evolving and taking on new forms, resulting in an even greater need to protect the consumer.
Keywords:
Advertising, advertisment, Unfair, Commercial, Practices, Law, Consumer, protection, 2005/29/EC, 2251/1994, 3587/2007
