Legal Regulation Of Unfair Comparative Advertising

As a form of advertising and means of publicity,comparative advertising has distinct advantages and disadvantages compared with other forms of commercial advertising,so it has always been controversial.At first,comparative advertising was regarded as a kind of unfair competition in many countries.After long-term research and practice,these countries gradually recognized the legitimacy of comparative advertising.But comparative advertising is also very easy to break the law.It is likely to constitute unfair comparative advertising,which needs complete laws to regulate.Unfair comparative advertising is based on comparative advertising and loses its legitimacy for some reasons.The judgment of unfair comparative advertising can be made by combining positive and negative aspects,that is,by referring to the requirements of legitimacy and prohibition of comparative advertising at the same time.There are two types of unfair comparative advertising: false publicity or misleading and defamation of others’ goodwill.Among them,false publicity or misleading and commercial defamation should be analyzed and identified in order to correctly judge and regulate unfair comparative advertising.Since the reform and opening up,China has some experience in regulating unfair comparative advertising,which reflects the characteristics of special regulations on comparative advertising,strict prohibition of derogation in advertising and the accuracy of advertising language.At the same time,it also shows some defects,such as unclear basic position,lack of legislation,low level of effectiveness of laws,unreasonable provisions and so on.Some developed countries that regulate unfair comparative advertising earlier generally recognize the legitimacy of comparative advertising,and stipulate the concept and legitimacy standards of comparative advertising in detail in the form of special bills or articles.At the same time,they support and encourage advertising organizations to self regulate unfair comparative advertising,so as to effectively regulate unfair comparative advertising The effect of advertising.Therefore,on the basis of the beneficial experience of our country and foreign countries,we can establish the attitude of allowing comparative advertising in principle,and regulate the unfair comparative advertising in our country by amending some provisions of the advertising law and adding special laws and regulations.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,there are five parts in this paper.The first part introduces the general theory of unfair comparative advertising,including the concept of comparative advertising,the connotation of unfair comparative advertising and so on.At the same time,it provides the judgment standard of unfair comparative advertising from the positive and negative perspectives;The second part focuses on the two basic types of unfair comparative advertising,namely,false publicity or misleading and defamation of others’ goodwill,and introduces in detail the relationship between false publicity,misleading and the concept of false advertising,misleading judgment methods,commercial defamation and real criticism The differences between them and other specific issues;The third part is the summary of the general situation and characteristics of the legal regulation of unfair comparative advertising in China.After sorting out the relevant documents,we can see the views,attitudes and legislative attempts of China on comparative advertising,and then analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the legal regulation.The fourth part introduces the understanding and legal practice of some foreign developed countries on comparative advertising.It compares and summarizes the common practices and useful experience of foreign countries on regulating unfair comparative advertising,which can provide reference for our country’s unfair advertising To provide reference for the legal regulation.The fifth part is the corresponding suggestions for the problems existing in the legal regulation of unfair comparative advertising in China.