Advertising in Georgia is a legally regulated activity at every stage — production, placement and distribution. Georgian advertising legislation consists of the Constitution of Georgia, international treaties and agreements, the Law of Georgia on Advertising, and other legislative and normative acts of Georgia. This page describes the general legal regime of advertising: its concepts, general requirements, outdoor advertising rules, sponsorship, and the competence of municipalities.
Purpose and scope of the law
The law governs legal relations arising in the production, placement and distribution of advertising on Georgia's goods — works and services — and financial markets, including the securities market. Its purpose is to foster healthy competition in advertising, protect public interests, the rights of advertising subjects and consumers, and prevent and suppress improper advertising.
The law applies to natural and legal persons of Georgia and foreign countries who produce, place and distribute advertising in Georgia on the basis of registration. It also has an extraterritorial edge: it applies when actions of Georgian natural or legal persons outside Georgia's borders cause — or may cause — corresponding negative consequences on Georgian territory, such as restriction of competition or misleading of other persons.
At the same time, the law does not apply to political advertising or to statements by natural persons not directly connected with entrepreneurial activity. Broadcast advertising and sponsorship are regulated separately by the Law of Georgia on Broadcasting, while general requirements for advertising and the specific issues of alcohol, tobacco products, gambling, pharmaceutical products, weapons and securities advertising, as well as the protection of minors, are regulated by the Law on Advertising itself.
Core concepts: advertising and improper advertising
Advertising is information distributed by any means and in any form about goods, services and works, natural and legal persons, ideas and initiatives, aimed at an indefinite circle of persons and serving the formation and maintenance of interest, as well as the promotion of sales. The law distinguishes the advertiser — the source of the advertising information, the producer — who gives the information its ready form, and the distributor — who places and distributes advertising using property, including airtime and communication channels.
Improper advertising is dishonest, unreliable, unethical, misleading or other advertising that violates established requirements as to content, time, place or manner of distribution. Dishonest advertising contains incorrect comparisons with a competitor's goods and expressions harmful to a competitor's name, dignity and reputation. Unreliable advertising contains data inconsistent with reality — concerning the properties, composition, price, conditions of use or shelf life of goods, and many other listed points.
The law separately defines comparative advertising — advertising that refers directly or indirectly to a competitor or the competitor's goods — and counter-advertising, which means the distribution of a denial of improper advertising. Tobacco and alcohol advertising carry dedicated definitions: for example, hard liquor advertising is advertising of an alcoholic drink whose spirit content exceeds 14 percent.
General requirements for advertising
Advertising must be understandable at the moment of its presentation, without the use of special knowledge or technical means. Throughout the territory of Georgia, advertising is distributed in the state language — a requirement that does not extend to broadcasts and publications distributed in another language, although the holder of a trademark registered in a foreign language must convey it in Georgian by transliteration.
It is impermissible to advertise goods whose production and sale are prohibited by Georgian legislation or which require a special permit (licence) that has not been obtained. Advertising of goods subject to mandatory certification must carry the mark "certified". It is prohibited to use a natural person's image or name in advertising without their permission. Advertising must not incite citizens to violence, aggression and chaos, nor call for dangerous actions capable of harming human health or threatening safety.
The indication of price in advertising is regulated by a separate law, while an entrepreneur offering property or services in Georgia must express the price only in lari, save for established exceptions. Placing and distributing improper advertising is prohibited and triggers liability established by legislation, proportionate to the degree and character of public danger of the committed act.
Outdoor advertising and the municipal permit
Outdoor advertising — posters, stands, illuminated signs and other technical means of stable territorial placement — must not resemble road signs and markers, must not impair their visibility, and must not endanger the movement of transport and pedestrians. Advertising on buildings must not worsen their architectural appearance, and any outdoor advertising must not disfigure historical and architectural monuments included in the national and world cultural treasury.
The decision to introduce a permit for placing outdoor advertising on a municipality's territory is taken by the representative body, and the permit is issued by the executive body under the procedure established by the Law on Licences and Permits. Municipalities must have an outdoor advertising distribution plan, coordinated with the road and railway administrations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and heritage-protection bodies in the relevant cases.
The permit established by the law is issued only for land or property owned by the state or a municipality; placement on privately owned land or property does not require this permit, and the fee is determined by contract with the owner. An abra — a board with an inscription placed on an economic agent's object denoting its name, located no more than 1.5 meters from that object — is not counted as advertising at all.
Sponsorship
Sponsorship is a contribution by natural and legal persons to the activities of other persons — in the form of money, property, results of intellectual activity, services or works — on condition of the distribution of advertising of the sponsor's goods. A sponsorship contribution is regarded as the value of advertising: the sponsor figures as the advertiser and the sponsored party as the distributor of advertising.
A sponsor has no right to interfere in the activities of the producer and distributor of advertising. A person whose goods or activity may not be distributed under this law has no right to sponsor. A clear prohibition targets direct or indirect sponsorship by manufacturers, importers and sellers of tobacco products.
Municipal competence and liability
Municipal executive bodies, or a person authorised by them, are competent within their remit to impose an administrative penalty, in the manner established by law, on violators of Georgian advertising legislation. Thus, alongside the outdoor advertising permit regime, the municipality is the level at which practical enforcement of advertising rules takes place.
If your business is planning an advertising campaign in Georgia, consult a lawyer early: checking the advertising text, language, placement location and permit requirements in advance costs far less than correcting a campaign later branded as improper advertising — and the liability that follows.