Deceptive Competition and the Protection of the Consumer

The protection of the consumer is one of the aims of the law against unfair trade practises. When applying the prohibition against misleading, deceptive advertising, it is necessary to solve the question of who is the consumer that is to be protected. The countries like Germany, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republik tend to see the consumer somebody as who needs a great deal of protection. The notion of the consumer in Great Britain, in France, Belgium, Switzerland seems to have a tendency to consider the consumer to be a normally critical, independent, self-confident and thorough personality. The article agrees with the recommendation of LIDC to use the concept of a consumer of average intelligencee and attentiveness and to take into accout the target audience at which the advertising is directed. In post-communist countries the consumer has a limited experince with some kinds of advertising and this fact should be taken into account when applying the "modern notion" of the consumer.