CZECH REPUBLIC Law and Practice Contributed by: Irena Lišková, Ladislav Mádl, Eliška Říhová and Adam Vymazal, Randl Partners
In the worst-case scenario, if a violation of the unfair competition rules intentionally causes harm or results in substantial benefits, it cannot be ruled out that such conduct could be considered a criminal offence, which will be investigated by the law enforcement authorities such as the police. 1.3 Liability for Deceptive Advertising Both natural and legal persons may be held liable for a violation of the Advertising Regulation Act and, in that context, also for deceptive advertising. The law stipulates various offences depending on the type of offender – whether the advertiser, advertis - ing agency, or advertising distributor. A fine may be imposed on any or all of them. While the advertiser may be exempt from liability upon proving that the advertising agency carried out the advertisement con - trary to its instructions, the exemption of the adver - tising agency is only possible if the truthfulness of the advertisement could not be verified despite the exercise of all due diligence. The advertising distribu - tor may be held liable for the means of dissemination and the dissemination of illegal content. 1.4 What Is Advertising? Under the Advertising Regulation Act, “advertising” is defined as an “announcement, demonstration or other presentation, disseminated, particularly through com - munication media, with the aim of promoting business activity, in particular, the promotion of the consump - tion or sale of goods, the construction, lease or sale of real estate, the sale or use of rights or obligations, the provision of services, or the promotion of a trade - mark”. 1.5 Pre-Approvals No government pre-approval is necessary, as there is no legislation in place regarding pre-approvals. Super - visory authorities have certain powers (removal/dis - continuation/suspension) in relation to advertisements under the Advertising Regulation Act, but the Act does not authorise the introduction of a pre-approval sys - tem. 1.6 Intellectual Property and Publicity Rights Under Czech law, capturing and/or sharing an image of an individual can be done only with their permission
(the image of an individual is strictly connected to the person and cannot be used without proper permis - sion). This also applies to audio and video recordings as well as any other forms of recording. Mere posing for pictures or videos is not considered to be permis - sion. The permission does not have to be in writing, but it is strongly recommended to have proof that the person consented to being recorded and publicised. Such permission can be withdrawn at any point, even when the permission was granted for a fixed period. On the other hand, if the permission is withdrawn without a legitimate reason, the individual who granted the per - mission may be liable for any damage caused by the inability to use the material covered by the consent. In addition to the above, the relevant principles of per - sonal data regulation (in particular those stipulated by the GDPR) shall also apply (if the photos are not used for personal or household use). 1.7 Self-Regulatory Authorities The only universal advertising self-regulatory body in the Czech Republic is the Czech Advertising Stand - ards Council (CASC). The CASC brings together cli - ents, agencies and the media with the aim of ensuring that advertising is honest, legal, decent and truthful. Its Code of Advertising Practice sets out moral and ethical rules of advertising. Although the Code is not a legal regulation and is only binding on the mem - bers of the CASC, it is widely respected. The CASC is also qualified to provide an expert opinion that may serve as the basis for the competent public authority to impose sanctions. The public may submit complaints to the CASC, which will subsequently review and evaluate them and issue a recommendation. Further, the Association for Internet Progress (AIP) is a self-regulating body in the field of internet content which has issued several documents related to adver - tising, including: • the Code of Conduct for Taking Over and Use of Third-Party Content; and
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