Using comparative advertising a company compares its brand, directly or not, to one or several brands. The comparison must be loyal, truthful, undeceiving and objective.

At the European Union level the comparative advertising was accepted through 97/55/CE Directive and defines comparative advertising as the one which identifies, explicitly or not, a competitor or the goods or services that it offers.

Comparative advertising generated a lot of law suits between competitor companies starting with imitating the features presented in an ad (the law suit between Lever and Procter & Gamble companies concerning the use of “whiteness” theme in laundry detergent ads) until price comparisons (the law suit between Carrefour and Leclerc related to online comparison of their products` prices).

comparative advertising, law, advertising investments