Protection of consumer rights from unfair online advertising: certain theoretical and practical aspects

Abstract

The subject of this research is the legal norms aimed at regulation of relations in the sphere of protection of consumer rights with regards to online advertising, including contextual and targeted advertising, as well as other type advertising distributed over telecommunication networks. The object of this research is the social relations arising in the process of creation, placement, and consumer perception of the aforementioned types of advertising. Special attention is given to the theoretical and practical aspects of protecting the basic consumer rights in the context of distribution of the indicated types of advertising, as well as compliance to the corresponding legislative prescriptions by the advertisers, including prohibition to mislead consumers, requirement to distribute advertising over telecommunication networks after receiving advance consent of the consumer, etc. The article provides the examples of court decisions and decisions of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation on consideration of the this category of cases. The novelty of this research consists in outlining the effective approaches of the courts and the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation applicable to the essence, concept and relevant issues of legal regulation of online advertising in the context of protection of consumer rights, including controversial aspects of qualification of online advertising in accordance with the criteria of misleading or deception, as well as questions on due processing of consumer consent to distribution of advertising over telecommunication networks. The author makes recommendations for the improvement of corresponding norms of the Federal Law “On Advertising” and the Federal Law “On The Protection of Competition”, namely to stipulate on the legislative level the provisions that qualify advertising as inappropriate if contains potentially misleading or deceptive content, as well as that consent to receive advertising through telecommunication networks should be in a written form and contain the signature of the consumer.