The selected unfair competition practice and protection against such practice The aim of the thesis is to analyze the phenomenon of misleading advertising and the possibilities of legal protection against that kind of unfair competition, within the comprehensiveness of Master's diploma thesis. I deal with the topic predominantly from the private law point of view. The aim of the thesis is, first, to summarize unfair competition and related terminology and, next, to outline its different aspects in detail and present related instruments of legal defence. The thesis consists of nine chapters. Each of them is concerned with different aspects of unfair competition. The Introduction describes the thesis topic, the structure of the thesis and its aim. Chapter One defines the term 'competition' and describes the law regulating the right to competition, its limits and normative basis. Chapter Two focuses on market competition and consists of two parts. The first one concentrates on legal definition of the term 'competition' and its general interpretation. The second one is addressed to competition law and its division. Chapter Three explains the term 'unfair competition' and presents a detailed survey of subjects in unfair competition. Following subchapters examines 'competitors', 'consumers', 'other...

Selected issues of unfair competition and legal protection against such conduct The purpose of my thesis is to analyse one of the most frequent unfair competition practice, the misleading advertising and the possibilities of legal protection against this practice. The thesis is composed of six chapters, each of them dealing with different aspects of unfair competition. The first chapter describes various attempts on the definition of the economic competition and explains the terms as economic aspect and benefit. The legal regulation of the economic competition includes direct and indirect regulation. Indirect regulation is based on exclusion of certain items or goods from the trading and on supervision of another category of items. Direct regulation is devided into antitrust law, that prevents elimination, restriction or another violation of economic competition, and into competition law, that prohibits the competitors from using unfair practices in the battle for customer. In the second chapter the unfair competition, its development and its subjects are covered. One of the most essential elements of an unfair competition, the "general clause" concept, is outlined in this chapter by characterization of its attributes and its relationship to special states of facts of an unfair competition. Certain...

1 The concept of an average consumer under Czech and European law RESUMÉ: The thesis is focused on the role of a so called average consumer under the law of unfair competition; namely concerning advertising and misleading labelling. The concept of an average consumer is being analysed under written law as well as in jurisprudence. The Czech and European laws are emphasized but other legal systems are also mentioned. A description of a current situation and history of the concept are accompanied by considerations de lege ferenda. Mainly the term consumer is being criticized as not quite suitable within the context of unfair competition. Unlike under the contract law, here the consumer does not represent an acting entity but a target or a prey. The current trend of weakening consumer's position-and therefore exaggeration's easing in advertising-is also criticized. Generally speaking, the advertising as such is being denounced; in particular because it harms the consumer and thus it is buck passing to speak about a consumer's protection while protecting and helping a competitor in reality. The thesis deals with practical impacts of misleading labelling on a consumer (and/or a competitor). According to its own methodology, it divides the misleading labelling into three categories: promotional, unsatisfactory...

The global rise of anti-vaccination movements has led to serious consequences for the public health such as the recent measles outbreak in the United States. The increased promotion of misleading information on vaccinations by social media influencers as well as by media outlets seems to have resulted into a more negative view on vaccinations. The popularity of these social media influencers and the good reputation and authority of the media outlets could have played a substantial role in these developments. The following experimental study will try to explore whether popularity or authority cues can have an impact on the evaluation of the credibility of these two types of sources via an online survey. Furthermore, it aims to examine whether said heuristic cues and resulting conformity effects or the source credibility in general could have an impact on the opinion of recipients on a potential autism-vaccination link. Results have shown that especially authority cues seem to have a positive impact on source credibility evaluations. Furthermore, a high general trust in the media positively influences assessments of source credibility of well-established news outlets. Popularity cues as well as authority cues seem to have a positive effect on the recipients´ opinion. However, authority cues and the resulting effects of informational conformity seem to lead to greater attitude changes. Particularly people with a high need for conformity exhibit considerable attitude changes when exposed to the well-established news outlet as a source. Also, a high perceived source credibility is positively correlated with a desired attitude change. Especially the high perceived credibility of the social media influencer resulted in significant attitude changes. The results underline the importance and positive impact that a perceived authority can have on source credibility assessments and on recipients’ opinions. This highlights the great necessity for self-proclaimed experts on social media platforms and particularly for well-established news outlets to increase their effort to thoroughly and accurately research health-related topics.

When Fredrik Reinfeldt during the TV4 broadcasting of the Ice hockey World Cup final in 2013 was titled Prime Minister instead of State minister it caused a twitter storm. Denominantions are important to us because they are so closely tied to our identity. We may even get upset on behalf of others. A language reform concerning personal pronouns therefore affect many. The gender- neutral pronoun hen received much media attention in 2012. Emotions ran high among both proponents and opponents who shared their opinions on various forums. In this study, seven debate articles that appeared in Swedish metropolitan press in 2012 are being analyzed from a rhetorical perspective. The intention is to investigate whether the debate is being conducted around the same topos, if misleading arguments occur, and to understand if proponents and opponents are trying to persuade each other and readers of their opinion. The result shows that the arguments often revolve around the same topos, but rests on such different values ​​that a comprehension between the parties does not seem likely in the current situation.

Syfte – I denna studie undersöks sambandet mellan konsumenters kunskap och förtroendegentemot kommunikationen av miljövänliga textila produkter.Teoretiskt ramverk – För att undersöka syftet redogörs vad kunskap respektive förtroendeär. Det teoretiska ramverket stod även till grund för utformandet av metoden, och av denanledningen redogörs i detta kapitel hur kunskap respektive förtroende kan mätas.Metod – Studien grundades på en enkätundersökning där respondenternas kunskap ochförtroende för miljövänlig textil produktion prövades. Resultatet analyserades sedan medchi2-test för att statistiskt säkerställa eller förkasta samband mellan kunskapsnivå ochförtroendenivå.Resultat och analys – Resultatet visade inte något statistiskt samband mellanrespondenternas kunskaps- och förtroendenivå. Studien visade även att respondenternaskunskapsnivå var generellt sett låg, utifrån det kunskapstest som gjordes ienkätundersökningen. Respondenternas förtroendenivå gentemot textila produkter somkommuniceras med miljömärkningar var högre än för de textila produkter som kommunicerassom miljövänliga utan användning av miljömärkningar.Diskussion och slutsats – Den låga kunskapen om kommunikationen av miljövänliga textilaprodukter kan bero på att konsumenter inte blir tillräckligt exponerade med information kringämnet, men kan även bero på bristande intresse och tid hos konsumenten. Det låga förtroendetför textila produkter utan miljömärkningar kan bero på att respondenterna varit med omgreenwashing. Att förtroendet är högre för produkter som marknadsförs med miljömärkningarkan bero på att dessa organisationer har en högre auktoritet och att konsumenter litar på attcertifieringarna ser till att produkter uppfyller vissa kriterier.Fortsatt forskning – En mer omfattande studie inom samma område med ett större antalrespondenter hade varit intressant, för att undersöka om detta skulle kunna påverka chi2-testen. En annan intressant aspekt att gå djupare in på är varför kunskapen respektiveförtroende ligger på de nivåer de gör och vad företag och organisationer skulle kunna göra föratt förändra dessa. / Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between consumers’knowledge and trust towards the communication of environmentally friendly textile products.Theoretical Framework - To examine the purpose of this study, the terms knowledge andtrust needed clarification. The theoretical framework was also the foundation for the design ofthe method, and therefore this chapter clarifies how consumers’ knowledge and trust can bemeasured.Method – The study was based on a survey in which respondents' knowledge and trusttowards eco-friendly textile production was measured. The results were then analysed withchi2-tests to statistically ensure or reject correlations between the levels of knowledge andtrust.Results and Analysis – The result from the chi2-tests did not show any statistical correlationbetween the respondents' knowledge and trust levels. The results of the survey showed thatthe respondents' level of knowledge towards the communication of environmentally friendlytextile products was generally low. The respondents' levels of trust towards textile productscommunicated with eco-labels were higher than for those textile products that arecommunicated as environmentally friendly without the use of eco-labels.Discussion and Conclusion – The low knowledge of communication of eco-friendly textileproducts can be caused by consumers’ lack of time and interest or because consumers are notsufficiently exposed to information about the subject. The low trust in textile products withouteco-labels may be caused by greenwashing. Consumers may also have a higher trust towardseco-labels because these organizations have a higher authority and because consumers maytrust that certifications ensure that products fulfils certain criteria.Continued Research – A more extensive study in the same field with a larger number ofrespondents would be interesting to investigate, whether this might affect the chi2-tests.Another interesting aspect to study is the reasons behind the consumers’ levels of knowledgeand trust, and what companies and organisations could do to improve them.

Darbe aptariami reklamos reglamentavimo Lietuvos ir Europos Sąjungos teisėje klausimai, siekiama atskleisti pagrindines su tuo susijusias problemas bei pasiūlyti jų sprendimo būdus. Darbe apžvelgiami skirtingų rūšių reklamą reglamentuojantys teisės aktai, analizuojami šiuose aktuose pateikiamų gaminių ir paslaugų reklamos sąvokų skirtumai, nagrinėjami pagrindiniai reklamos draudimai bei apribojimai, vertinami jų tikslai ir veiksmingumas, apsaugant visuomenę nuo neigiamų reiškinių reklamoje, pateikiami praktinių pažeidimų, susijusių su viešu reklamos skleidimu, pavyzdžiai bei jų vertinimas. Nagrinėjant reklamos teisinio reglamentavimo problematiką, pateikiama pavyzdžių iš Lietuvos teismų ir Konkurencijos tarybos praktikos, nes būtent ši praktika aiškiausiai atskleidžia atskirų reklamą reglamentuojančių teisės normų taikymo problematiką. Darbe pateikiamos išvados ir pasiūlymai, kaip galima būtų liberalizuoti reklamos ribojimą, nesudarant sąlygų piktnaudžiauti vis stiprėjančia reklamos įtaka eiliniam vartotojui. / The work discusses questions of advertising regulations in Lithuanian and European Union law, tries to reveal main problems of the regulations and suggests the ways of solving them. The work reviews different legal acts regulating advertising, analyses differences of various products and services advertising definitions, examines main prohibitions and restrictions of advertising, evaluates their objectives and efficiency of protecting society from negative aspects of advertising, presents examples of practical violations in public advertising and gives their evaluations. Problematic of legal advertising regulations is analyzed through presenting the examples in Lithuanian court and Competition Council cases, for this kind of practice points out main individual problems of legal advertising regulations. The work gives conclusions and suggestions how to liberate advertising restrictions in the way not to create possibilities to abuse a regular user with growing influence of advertising.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2003. Graduate Programme in Administration. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (180-193). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ99259

Resumé European Law against Unfair Competition This thesis focuses on the regulation of law against unfair competition adopted on the European Union level. The thesis is composed of two parts - the first one introduces legislative regulation of law against unfair competition, the second part analyses legal regulation of misleading and comparative advertisement as the examples of merits of unfair competition. The first part of the thesis firstly overviews the law against unfair competition on the international level; the core of the thesis, however, lies in the overview of legislation adopted by the European Union. Within the summary of the European legislation it firstly introduces the background for the legislative activity of the European Union in the field of unfair competition. Subsequently, it is followed up by the overview of directives with the primary aim to protect European businesses and consumers against unfair competition. When introducing the directives it emphasises mainly the findings whether it was adopted under minimum or maximum harmonisation, therefore to which extend the member state legislators are free to diverge from the regulation adopted by the European Union. The aim of the forth chapter is to look at the law against unfair competition as a part of private law. The second part of...

European law against unfair competition This diploma thesis deals with the regulation of European law against unfair competition in the Directive on unfair commercial practices as well as in the Directive concerning misleading and comparative advertising. The aim of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive explanation of the areas of the law against unfair competition regulated by these directives with regard to relevant jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union, another objective is to evaluate the success of transposition of this regulation into czech national law. After the introductary part, the thesis is diveded into six chapters. The first chapter briefly defines the status of the law against unfair competition in the legal system, interprets the basic terms and describes the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The second chapter is dedicated to the evolution of the law against unfair competition at the level of European Union. The third chapter is dedicated to misleading advertising and its regulation by the Directive concerning misleading and comparative advertising, the fourth chapter is dedicated to comparative advertising regulated by the same directive. The fifth chapter deals with unfair commercial practices in business to consumer relations regulated...