The Legal Nature of Endorsement Cooperation
The use of a person's name or image in advertising is regulated by the Georgian Law on Advertising. Article 3 defines advertising as information disseminated by any means and in any form about goods, services and works, about natural persons and legal entities, about 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 endorsement of a product by an athlete, artist or public figure thus falls squarely within the definition of advertising, and the relationship is governed by the requirements of the law.
The law also distinguishes the subjects of advertising: the customer of advertising is the source of the information for its subsequent production, placement and dissemination; the producer gives the advertising information its finished form; the distributor places and disseminates it using property, including broadcasting and communication channels; and the consumer is the person for whose attention the information is disseminated. When concluding an endorsement contract, it is important to establish who occupies each role, because the allocation of responsibility follows precisely from that.
Categories of Inappropriate Advertising
Planning endorsement cooperation requires knowledge of the categories of inappropriate advertising. Unfair advertising contains incorrect comparisons, expressions harming the name, dignity and reputation of a competitor or third person, and discredits persons who do not use the advertised goods; unreliable advertising contains data inconsistent with reality — about the properties of the goods, the price, guarantees or awards; unethical advertising violates moral norms and profanes state symbols; misleading advertising deliberately leads the consumer into error. The law separately defines comparative advertising, which directly or indirectly points to a competitor.
Special attention is given to alcohol advertising: advertising of strong spirits is advertising of an alcoholic beverage in which the alcohol content exceeds 14 percent. Endorsement cooperation touches these categories directly: the reputation of the person and the lawfulness of the contract are often put at risk precisely at these boundaries, so the product and the form of the campaign must be checked before signing.