Bulgarian competition watchdog fines biscuit-maker for false advertising
Bulgaria’s Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said on March 23 that it has fined Mondelez Bulgaria Holding 236 400 leva, or about 120 900 euro, for false advertising and using images of Bulgaria’s top two tennis players, Grigor Dimitrov and Tsvetana Pironkova, without permission.
The pictures were used on Facebook on two separate occasions in January and February 2014, alongside the logo and advertising slogan of belVita biscuits, made by Mondelez International, the parent company of Mondelez Bulgaria Holding.
The images of the two players represented advertising because by using the product’s logo, the company implied that Dimitrov and Pironkova endorsed the product, but the regulator’s investigation found that neither player had an endorsement deal with the company. Dimitrov was the one to lodge the complaint with the watchdog, CPC documents showed.
CPC also fined the advertising firm that posted the false advertising online 1500 leva, which was responsible for the upkeep of the product page on Facebook. Both fines represented 0.1 per cent of the annual turnover of the two companies and could be appealed in court within a 14-day period, CPC said.
(Grigor Dimitrov, photo: mirsasha/flickr.com)
