CYPRUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Stelios Christophides and Vasilis Charalambous, George Z Georgiou & Associates LLC
1.8 Private Right of Action for Consumers The CP Law 2021 introduced a private cause of action for any consumer whose economic interests have been negatively affected through any breach of the legislation. As a result, a consumer has the option to take action against any trader who has engaged in deceptive or misleading advertising practices. The court is able to provide the following remedies to consumers. • Declare that the contract is illegal, thereby the con - sumer is no longer legally bound by it. • Order a price reduction of any good/service which is the subject matter of the contract. • Award the consumer damages which the court considers reasonable. • Take any other remedy the court considers reason - able under the circumstances. Additionally, consumers are able to seek interim and final measures pursuant to Article 62 of the law and a trader may be ordered, among other things, to: • immediately terminate and/or refrain from repeating the infringing acts; • take remedial action, at the discretion of the court with a view at remedying the unlawful behaviour; or • publish all or part of the court judgment or publish a remedial statement with a view to rectifying the continuing effects of the breach. 1.9 Regulatory and Legal Trends During the past 12 months the CPS has examined, inter alia, various cases, as follows. • Breach of the CP Law 2021 by an influencer – the CPS imposed an administrative fine of EUR2,000 on an influencer who, with his posts in question, falsely created the impression that he was not act - ing for purposes related to his commercial activity or was falsely impersonating the consumer. • Several cases regarding specific commercial prac - tices which, including their overall presentation, deceived – or were likely to deceive – the average consumer as to the existence of a special price advantage and led – or were likely to lead – the
communications should not contain any statement or claim which, directly or by implication, omission, ambiguity, or exaggeration, may mislead the con - sumer, regarding intellectual property rights such as patents, trade marks, designs, and trade names. 1.7 Self-Regulatory Authorities CARO is the principal self-regulatory non-profit organ - isation in Cyprus for all mediums and for all industry sectors. It is a member of the European Advertising Standards Alliance and it has published its own adver - tising ethics code which is analogous to the code of the International Chamber of Commerce. A substan - tial number of Cypriot TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, and advertising agencies are members of CARO and are committed to adhere to its Code. Procedure and Remedies Any consumer can file a complaint with CARO with respect to an advertisement which the consumer con - siders to be misleading or contrary to CARO’s Code. CARO operates a fast-track procedure in which the views of both parties (the complainant and the adver - tiser) are considered before a decision is reached within two weeks. CARO has established a two-tier system for examining complaints and both are able to provide the following remedies. • Request a withdrawal of the offensive advertise - ment. • Order an amendment of the advertisement to ren - der it compliant with its Code. Whilst CARO is not afforded with the authority to enforce its decisions or to order monetary relief against the advertiser, it is able to enforce its decisions indirectly by taking the following actions. • Publish its decision on its website. • Inform media providers, in which the advertise - ment is exhibited, of CARO’s decision and request the immediate removal of the advertisement (the majority of media mediums have contractually agreed to comply with CARO’s decisions). • Inform other agencies with extensive regulatory powers such as the CPS, the RDSA, and the Press and Information Office of the Republic of Cyprus to take action against the advertiser.
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