CYPRUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Stelios Christophides and Vasilis Charalambous, George Z Georgiou & Associates LLC
4.4 Ambush Marketing Cyprus does not have specific legislation directly related to ambush marketing. Due to this, ambush marketing is not prohibited per se. However, there are methods and alternatives to prevent ambush market - ing, mainly by marketers ensuring contractual safe - guards or having to rely on relevant general laws. Most notably, within the CP Law 2021, the best pro - tection against ambush marketing lies in the contrac - tual terms which regulate the rights of event organis - ers to offer spaces for an event to third parties for their marketing causes. It is also highly recommended that sponsors should insist that the advertisements in the vicinity of an event are strictly regulated through a contract and focus on the exclusivity of their sponsorship in order to limit access to other competitors. 5. Social/Digital Media 5.1 Special Rules Applicable to Social Media Advertisers engaged in social media advertising should adhere to the Regulation and CARO’s Code. In addition, as discussed above (see 1.2 Enforcement and Regulatory Authorities ), regarding video-sharing platforms, the RDSA has been entrusted with the role of supervising those platforms that are established in Cyprus. As a result, RDSA is responsible for checking compliance of the video-sharing platforms with the provisions of the Audiovisual Media Services Direc - tive, as implemented. In short, the most important requirements to be observed for advertisements on video-sharing platforms are that: • advertisements must be readily recognisable as such; • advertisements for cigarettes and other tobacco products, as well as for electronic cigarettes and refill containers, are prohibited; • advertisements for alcoholic drinks must not be aimed at minors or encourage immoderate con - sumption; • advertisements for prescription medicines are prohibited; and
Advertisements must not in any way take advantage of the good reputation of another company, product, person, or organisation, as embodied in the name, trade marks, or other intellectual property, and must not take advantage of the favourable impression cre - ated by another advertising campaign without prior approval. 4.3 Challenging Comparative Claims Made by Competitors There are three ways advertisers may choose to chal - lenge claims made by competitors. • Initiate a civil court action seeking interim and final relief, and a trader may be ordered, among other things, to: (a) immediately terminate and/or refrain from repeating the infringing acts; (b) take remedial action, at the discretion of the court; and/or (c) publish all or part of the court judgment or publish a remedial statement with a view to rectifying the continuing effects of the breach. • File a complaint with the CPS which may, in turn, order the competitor to take remedial action such as to amend the advertisement or prohibit its pub - lication of the advertisement, impose fines in case of non-compliance, or even initiate proceedings for court measures against the competitor, including injunctions. Nonetheless, according to the CP Law 2021, the CPS, before examining any complaint for comparative advertising, may ask the advertiser to indicate whether any other available mechanisms, such as self-regulation, have been utilised and whether the complaint had been dealt effectively under such mechanisms. • Advertisers may file a complaint before CARO in relation to any claim made by a competitor. Where CARO agrees with the complainant it may request that the advertisement is either withdrawn or modi- fied. (See 1.4 What Is Advertising? for the effec - tiveness of CARO’s remedies.) Furthermore, the CP Law 2021 has enabled advertis - ers to directly seek court remedies in respect of com - parative advertisements. The authors expect that in the coming years advertisers may seek to utilise these remedies more frequently.
75 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook