Advertising?

BillyBoy13

Heres an interesting question. I always thought it was illegal...... maybe not illegal but a huge no-no at any rate for a company to compare themselves to another company.

For example, yesterday we got some junk post from a shop that would have quite a few outlets in the country (think Spar, Londis, Centra) and in this advertisement they compared their prices to an even bigger shop (think Dunnes, Tesco, Superquinn).

The low and short was an eye catching table with the price differences and then a rhetorical question which is supposed to make you wonder why you are still shopping in said supermarket.

However all its making me wonder is, what happens when said supermarkets legal team get wind of it?

234

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2007/en/si/0774.html

Not prohibited, just regulated.

This is dealt with under the law of trade marks as usually you will need to use a competitors trade mark to make the comparison.

You can validly compare products as long as you are not misleading. That means you need to be honest, you have to be comparing actual equivalents, the information has to be accurate, etc.

Basically, if chain A want to say that their own brand back rashers are 33% cheaper than chain B's own brand back rashers where weight and other product details are the same then it is perfectly permissible to compare.

It's even easier when you are comparing a branded product (eg boxes of Barry's tea).

However, if you started comparing products that were somehow qualitatively different then that would be misleading and prohibited.