Brussels issues ever more regulations. Recently the do’s and don’ts in advertising are defined on a European level. Misleading trade practices are prohibited, as well as dishonest trading practices. A ‘blacklist’ of trading practices which are unacceptable in all circumstances is recently been made up, such as advertising offers while the product is not in stock, bait and switch offers and misleading advertorials.
The Dutch government is behind schedule in the implementation of these European regulation in Dutch law. This should have been finalized by 12th of December 2007.
The Stichting Reclame Code (Dutch Advertising Code Foundation) is more energetic. In cooperation with the Vereniging voor Reclamerecht the Nederlandse Reclame Code (Dutch Advertising Code) is completely rewritten.
All definitions on misleading and dishonest trade practices are incorporated in the (new) NRC. The existing article 7 (misleading advertising) is extended with articles 8.1 to 8.5. Unfortunately the text is difficult, sometimes near impossible, to understand due to influences from European legislation. A positive aspect is that this (new) NRC corrects an obvious error in the European guideline: also competitors can, between themselves, act against misleading practices under the (new) NRC. Not just Business to Consumer-advertisements (BtoC) but also Business-to-Business (BtoB) advertisements fall under the scope of this the NRC (new).
A peculiar legal fact: the altered text in the NRC is declared applicable on the 1st of February 2008 on all publications since 12th December 2007….. A minor setback to the positive fact is that again self regulation is ahead of Dutch law.
We are now awaiting the first decisions on dishonest and misleading trade practices.
Ebba Hoogenraad
Click here for the full text of NRC (new).
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Brussels issues ever more regulations. Recently the do’s and don’ts in advertising are defined on a European level. Misleading trade practices are prohibited, as well as dishonest trading practices. A ‘blacklist’ of trading practices which are unacceptable in all circumstances is recently been made up, such as advertising offers while the product is not in stock, bait and switch offers and misleading advertorials.
The Dutch government is behind schedule in the implementation of these European regulation in Dutch law. This should have been finalized by 12th of December 2007.
The Stichting Reclame Code (Dutch Advertising Code Foundation) is more energetic. In cooperation with the Vereniging voor Reclamerecht the Nederlandse Reclame Code (Dutch Advertising Code) is completely rewritten.
All definitions on misleading and dishonest trade practices are incorporated in the (new) NRC. The existing article 7 (misleading advertising) is extended with articles 8.1 to 8.5. Unfortunately the text is difficult, sometimes near impossible, to understand due to influences from European legislation. A positive aspect is that this (new) NRC corrects an obvious error in the European guideline: also competitors can, between themselves, act against misleading practices under the (new) NRC. Not just Business to Consumer-advertisements (BtoC) but also Business-to-Business (BtoB) advertisements fall under the scope of this the NRC (new).
A peculiar legal fact: the altered text in the NRC is declared applicable on the 1st of February 2008 on all publications since 12th December 2007….. A minor setback to the positive fact is that again self regulation is ahead of Dutch law.
We are now awaiting the first decisions on dishonest and misleading trade practices.
Ebba Hoogenraad
Click here for the full text of NRC (new).