---
title: "Advertising Fraud Defense"
url: "https://legal.ge/en/service/crim-criminal-law-en/advertising-fraud-defense-en"
field: "Criminal Law"
description: "Defense lawyers for advertising fraud and consumer deception charges (Art. 219) in Georgia. Protect your business. Find specialists on Legal.ge."
reviewed: "2026-07-09"
updated: "2026-10-14"
publisher: "legal.ge"
---

# Advertising Fraud Defense

> Source: legal.ge, https://legal.ge/en/service/crim-criminal-law-en/advertising-fraud-defense-en

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.

The full text is available on legal.ge after signing in: https://legal.ge/en/service/crim-criminal-law-en/advertising-fraud-defense-en

### What penalty applies to consumer deception under Article 219?

The basic composition — deception that significantly harmed the consumer — is punished by a fine or corrective labour from one to two years. In the aggravated forms — by a group by prior conspiracy, in a large amount, or by a previously convicted person — the penalty is a fine, house arrest from six months to two years, or imprisonment for up to two years.

### What is a large amount under this article?

Under the note, a large amount is damage from the deception exceeding twenty percent of the value payable by the consumer. The prosecution must prove this threshold; otherwise the case remains under the first part.

### When is the harm significant?

The article itself does not quantify significant harm — it is a question of assessing the concrete circumstances of the case. But the presence of this element is mandatory: an act causing minor harm is not punishable under this article.

### How is commission by a group by prior conspiracy established?

This marker requires proof that several persons agreed in advance to deceive the consumer — for example, distributed roles at the weighing, counting or service stage. Mere joint work in a team does not yet amount to this marker, so the defence always checks this boundary.

### What does a Legal.ge consultation give you?

We analyse your facts: whether a form of deception exists, how significant the harm is, whether it exceeds twenty percent, and under which part the accusation proceeds. You receive a realistic assessment and an action plan.