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.