Unethical advertising and consumer fraud in the business sector are crimes that directly strike at market credibility and consumer rights. Georgian legislation strictly protects consumers from misleading information. When a company or individual entrepreneur intentionally disseminates false information about the properties of a product or service to gain profit, it goes beyond ordinary marketing and may escalate into criminal liability. The crime under Article 219 involves deceiving a consumer regarding weight, size, count, or creating a false impression about the quality of a product (service). For the accused, this means not only financial loss and reputational damage but also potential imprisonment. Therefore, qualified legal defense is essential to distinguish marketing exaggeration from actual crime.
What does the Advertising Fraud Defense service cover?
Lawyers on our platform focusing on economic crimes offer comprehensive defense:
- Legal audit of advertising materials: Analyzing ad campaigns, labels, and contracts to determine if they contain criminally punishable signs.
- Expertise: Appointing commodity and linguistic expertise to determine how much the product's real properties match the declared ones.
- Analysis of consumer claims: Studying complaints to determine if the deception was systematic and intentional.
- Interaction with the Competition Agency: Often, criminal cases are preceded by administrative proceedings. The lawyer protects the company's interests with the regulator.
- Proving lack of intent: The defense strategy often relies on proving that false information was disseminated due to technical error or lack of information, not intentionally.