GUIDA EUROPEA PER CITTÀ
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
The Competition Authority rules that advertisements for the European City Guide are misleading
Applying Italian legislation on misleading and comparative advertising, the Competition Authority has ruled the advertisement being disseminated by the European City Guide S.L. company, with its registered office in Barcelona (Spain), for the 'European City Guide' to be misleading. This decision, which follows another similar one issued last year in response to a complaint from a number of consumers' associations.
These messages, disseminated by post and targeted at businesses in the sector, create the mistaken impression that the "European City Guide", in both the Italian and the English versions, is an advertising vehicle to publicise business activities completely free of charge, offering the addressees the possibility to have their firm's name published in a special guide. This expectation is further confirmed by the fact that the addressees of these advertisements are invited to indicate their class of business activities and insert or correct any missing or erroneous data if they are interested in having their firm's name published in this guide. However, these messages are designed to solicit firms to publish their class of business in the Guide against payment of 717 EUR, or approximately 1,400,000 lire. But in the advertisement, the costs of the service are not stated explicitly, and the Italian word "Ordine" and its English equivalent "Order" are printed at the bottom of the page of the flyer with a graphic device that makes it scarcely legible. Consumers might therefore be deceived by a message which is not immediately recognisable as a promotional venture or misled regarding the financial terms of the offer.
The Competition Authority deemed it necessary to take action to protect numerous consumers who had received payment demands from this company, also because the message has been disseminated in many other European countries, including the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium, with the same characteristics, giving rise to similar action by their respective Competition Authorities.
The Authority therefore prohibited any further dissemination of this message and ordered the European City Guide company to publish a statement, within 60 days of the date of service of the ruling, occupying a full page in the Italian business daily "Il Sole 24 Ore", rectifying its message and making it clear that the promotional scheme being advertised was for payment.
Rome, 15 October 2001