Fairness Commission clarifies case with hearing for the first time
For the first time, the Swiss Fair Trading Commission (SLK) has invited two parties to a dispute to attend an in-person hearing. The hearing concerned an advertisement for a hybrid vehicle.
The vehicle was advertised with the slogan "Doesn't need a power socket and still drives electrically", which resulted in an objection. The responsible chamber was of the opinion that the average addressee would expect, based on this advertising slogan, that an electric vehicle would achieve approximately the same range as a hybrid car, SLK announced on Wednesday.
Because this had not been clearly evident from the technical documents submitted, the SLK had exceptionally invited the two parties to a hearing and given them the opportunity to respond to supplementary questions from the board members. The respondent was able to explain the facts in direct conversation to such an extent that the SLK considered the advertising to be admissible and dismissed the appeal.
Of the total of 37 appeals, the three chambers, including the plenum, approved 16 in the first half of 2017. They rejected 12. Three appeals were approved in part and rejected in part. Three appeals were not upheld and three others were not accepted. The SLK assessed three requests for sanctions and six appeals and dismissed them all.
In addition, the SLK put new "stop advertising" guidelines into effect. This was triggered by a complaint against an unwanted advertising mailing. It turned out that the existing guidelines of the SLK, Swiss Post and the Swiss Dialog Marketing Association were not clear enough in this regard. (SDA)
