Fiat TV commercial has broken the law in Austria
The Italian car manufacturer Fiat has been condemned in Austria for an advertising spot. The Commercial Court in Vienna ruled that the ad did not contain all the information required by law.
The judges upheld the consumer protection association VKI, which had filed a lawsuit. The ruling in the first instance is not legally binding.
If an advertisement constitutes an "invitation to purchase," it must contain all information that is important for the consumer. In the TV commercial for a leasing contract, however, information essential for the consumer's decision was withheld.
In a TV commercial, a Fiat brand car was advertised with the words "500 days for free". Consumers could take advantage of the opportunity to pay the price of the car later (after 500 days). If consumers actually made use of this advertised deferred payment, however, they had to pay 200 euros in fees. However, these charges were not mentioned in the advertising, neither in the spoken text nor in the form of a written notice. According to the Vienna Higher Regional Court (OLG), the advertising was therefore misleading.
Advertisements for credit and leasing contracts must contain information such as the borrowing rate, the effective annual interest rate and the total amount, writes the Association for Consumer Information VKI in a statement on Monday. And according to the Consumer Credit Act clear, concise and conspicuous.
"The purpose of this duty to provide information is to make consumers aware of the charges they can expect to face if they conclude a contract and thus enable them to compare different offers," says Beate Gelbmann, head of the complaints department at VKI. (SDA/hae)
