ADVERTISING LAW ENFORCEMENT: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PROCEDURES AND COMPLIANCE PROGRAM

The procedure concerning misleading advertisingis started directly by the application of a consumerwho is actually misled by particular advertising.Apart from the consumer application, the proceedingcan be initiated as the result of the administrativemonitoring of the advertising law enforcement.However, the most frequent and effective wayto find a deceptive fact in advertising is throughconsumer application because consumers are ableto recognize deception in its infancy. Eventually,the practice of Advertising law in Uzbekistanstill suffers from a lack of voluntary complianceprograms, which makes co-regulation very weakand enforcement inefficient.

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RUSTAMBEKOV ISLAMBEK RUSTAMBEKOVICH Deputy Rector on Academic Affairs, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Science in Law, Professor

KHODJAEV BAKHSHILLO KAMOLOVICH Deputy Rector on Research and Innovations, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Science in Law, Professor

LATIPOV SAMIR ILDUSOVICH Director of the Center for Legal Initiatives and Innovations, Tashkent State University of Law

UMAROV DILSHODJON MA’RUFOVICH Deputy Rector of International Cooperation and Continuing Education, Tashkent State University of Law, PhD in Law, Dotsent

NEMATOV JASUR AMINJONOVICH Professor of the Tashkent branch of the Russian University of Economics named after GV Plekhanov

SAYDAKHMEDOV UMID MURODOVICH Judge for Economic Affairs, Tashkent Regional Court, Doctor of Philosophy in Legal Subjects, Associate Professor

BEKOV IKHTIYOR RUSTAMOVICH Professor of the Department of Constitutional Law, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Science in Law

UMARKHANOVA DILDORA SHARIPKHANOVNA Dean of the Faculty of International Law and Comparative Legislation, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of science in law, Associate Professor

ABZALOVA KHURSHIDA MIRZIYATOVNA Acting Professor of the Department of Criminal Law, Criminology and Anti–corruption, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Science in Law

NEMATOV JURABEK NEMATULLOYEVICH Acting Professor of the Department of Administrative and Financial Law, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Science in Law

AKHMEDOVA GUZALKHON UTKUROVNA Acting Associate Professor of the Department of Criminalistics and Forensic Examination, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Science in Law

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MEXMONOV QAMBARIDDIN MIRADHAMOVICH Acting Professor of the Department of Civil Law, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Philosophy in Legal Subjects

ERGASHEV IKROM ABDURASULOVICH Head of Scientific Department, Tashkent State University of Law, Associate Professor, Doctor of Philosophy in Legal Subjects.

ISMOILOV SHUKHRATJON ABDUSAMINOVICH Head of the Department of Labor Law, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Science of Law

GAFUROVA NOZIMAKHON ELDAROVNA Head of the Department of International Law and Human Rights, Tashkent State University of Law, Associate Professor, Doctor of Philosophy in Legal Subjects

YUSUPOV SARDORBEK BAKHADIROVICH Head of the Department of Administrative and Financial Law, Tashkent State University of Law, Associate Professor, Doctor of Philosophy in Legal Subjects

KHUJAEV SHOKHJAKHON AKMALJON UGLI Head of Intellectual Property Law Department, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Philosophy in Legal Subjects

KURBANOV MARUF MAMADAMINOVICH Acting Associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Law, Criminology and Anti-corruption, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Philosophy in Legal Subjects

PIRMATOV OTABEK SHAVKATOVICH Acting Associate Professor of the Department of Civil Procedural and Economic Procedural Law, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Philosophy in Legal Subjects

NURUMOV DILSHODBEK DJUMABAYEVICH Acting Associate Professor of the Department of Court, Law Enforcement Agencies and Advocacy, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Philosophy in Legal Subjects

TURDIYEV KHAYITJON USMONKUL UGLI Acting Associate Professor of the Department of Theory of State and Law, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Philosophy in Legal Subjects

KHOLMIRZAYEV O‘TKIRBEK PAKHLAVONOVICH Lecturer of the Department of Business Law, Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Philosophy in Legal Subjects

SHAMSUTDINOV BEKHRUZ SADRIDDIN UGLI Head of the Department of Commercialization of Scientific and Innovative Projects, Tashkent State University of Law

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KHODJAEV BAKHSHILLO Advertising law enforcement: comparative analysis of procedures and compliance program .............................................................................................................7

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ADVERTISING LAW ENFORCEMENT: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PROCEDURES AND COMPLIANCE PROGRAM

ARTICLE INFO Keywords: advertising law, enforcement, compliance, procedures, misleading advertising, advisory opinion, industry guides, cease and desist order, corrective advertising, enforcement authority, FTC (Federal Trade Commission of the USA), FAS (Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation).

Introduction The FTC has been criticized for its complex and time-consuming procedures

Khodjaev Bakhshillo Kamolovich, Vice-Rector of the Tashkent State University of Law, Doctor of Law, Acting Professor ORCID: 0009-0000-2609-0807 e-mail: bakhshillo.khodjaev@tsul.uz

ABSTRACT The procedure concerning misleading advertising is started directly by the application of a consumer who is actually misled by particular advertising. Apart from the consumer application, the proceeding can be initiated as the result of the administrative monitoring of the advertising law enforcement. However, the most frequent and effective way to find a deceptive fact in advertising is through consumer application because consumers are able to recognize deception in its infancy. Eventually, the practice of Advertising law in Uzbekistan still suffers from a lack of voluntary compliance programs, which makes co-regulation very weak and enforcement inefficient.

who understand the proscription of advertising law will not transgress them. The program is designed to increase

which lead to weak enforcement. Some of the wealthier advertisers deliberately take advantage of FTC procedures and lengthy court battles to continue profitable sales of misrepresented products for as long as possible. Voluntary compliance refers to the premise that the vast majority of advertisers compliance with the law, which requires advertisers to provide consumers with information that allows them to compare products or services. Voluntary compliance might be in the form of advisory opinions or administrative interpretation of the statute. An advisory opinion is a staff-level advice on the compatibility of proposed conduct with

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the statutes. The aim of an advisory opinion is to help clarify FTC rules and decisions, and therefore the commission staff issues such opinions often in response to requests from business and industry groups.

The FTC offers general guidelines concerning advertising of particular products or within a particular industry, called Industry Guides. Advertising guides for the industry play a significant role in the business education of advertisers because if consumers lose faith in advertising, the entire industry suffers.

Materials and methods The research conducts a comparative analysis of the USA, Russia and Uzbekistan. The comparative research starts with the USA because fundamental theories and legal concepts were developed in the USA. The analysis of development roots shows that legal standards transplanted from the USA to Europe, from Europe to Russia and from Russia to Uzbekistan (the USA-the EU-Russia-Uzbekistan). Since the Uzbek legislature implemented laws directly from Russia, the Russian Federation is also a subject for comparative analysis in the research. The study focuses on Russia because Russian law has had a significant impact on the development of legal requirements in Uzbekistan. The research does not intend to conduct a special analysis of the EU because legal regulation varies from country to country within the EU that requires separate research.

The research is conducted in an intersection of the fields of competition law, consumer protection law and advertising law, because misleading advertising, as an unfair competition method (unfair trade practices), is directly addressed to consumers who need to be protected. Moreover, the necessity for examination of legal standards requires analyzing special provisions of the Advertising law. However, the research does not cover intellectual property-related issues of misleading advertising, because IP law has its own specific legal nature with a broad scale and problematic issues that need a separate study.

Research results The most frequent and effective way to find a deceptive fact in advertising is through consumer application because consumers are able to recognize deception in its infancy.

The main problem in enforcement is that the enforcement authority tries to identify and examine a deception statement independently without any help from experts. The issue here is the administrative interests of the enforcement authority to keep control over misleading advertising regulation, which means that the enforcement authority, as an administrative authority, subjectively holds absolute power to identify, control, consider, make decisions and punish deceptive violations. However, recently the enforcement authority has started referring to dictionaries and to the conclusions of expert linguists.

However, some cases heavily depend on product characteristics and the enforcement authority or courts rely on complex and multiple expertizes. Among a huge variety of advertising, a group of advertisements tells consumers about the functional characteristics of a product and obviously needs a particular rationale.

However, the main problem in practice is that Russia has no voluntary compliance program. In particular, an advisory opinion concerning advertising content might prevent deception cases. Moreover, administrative interpretation of the advertising law in the form of industry guidelines or trade regulation rules might clarify legal requirements for improper advertising. Thus, the voluntary compliance program in Advertising law enforcement would be a useful practical guide for advertisers to avoid offensive claims in advertising.

The next issue that is challenging for the committee is to identify an exaggeration in advertising, because, as the committee states, examination of an exaggeration

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statement has some difficulties in proceedings. The advertisers “abuse” their “advertising power” thinking “the taste is a purely individual matter”. 1. Research findings analysis 2. The USA 1. Procedures: empirical tests for identification of deception The FTC has been criticized for its complex and time-consuming procedures which lead to weak enforcement. Some of the wealthier advertisers deliberately take advantage of FTC procedures and lengthy court battles to continue profitable sales of misrepresented products for as long as possible. The FTC may first learn about a potentially deceptive practice from a company’s competitors, or even from a member of the public. The Commission frequently uses two types of survey methods to find deception in advertising. The first is the in-home, dayafter recall test which is conducted by Burke Marketing Research Company so-called Burke test. The second is an out-of-home, or in-theater, presentation recall test, such as the Audience Reaction Test administered by Audience Studies Inc., the so-called ASI test1 [1, p. 112]. Burke test permits respondents to watch TV commercials under normal viewing conditions in their homes, interviews will be conducted after watching commercials via phone calls, and consequently, the results of the interview will serve to assess consumer understanding of particular advertising. There are two main drawbacks of Burke tests. First, there is no guarantee that survey respondents can attend one specific commercial on one specific evening. Second, the test intends to measure recall of a message, rather than conveyed meaning2 [1, p. 116]. As for the second type of survey, ASI tests are conducted in a theater, rather

1 Surveys presented in FTC cases are conducted by Burke or

ASI, or by tests very similar to them. Recall is a test of memory, whereas deceptiveness requires

a test of meaning attribution. Memory is not really the step of information processing in which the evaluator is interested.

than opting for the natural environment of the home, where recruited audience members are given a questionnaire before commercials begin, and followed by a series of commercials they are asked to fill out a questionnaire about advertisements. The ASI tests have two main advantages over the Burke. First, the ASI tests involve a forced exposure that tends to secure a higher probability that the commercial will be given some attention. Second, the time span between viewing advertising and responding to the questionnaire is much shorter for ASI which gives less time for dissipation of recall and makes it more sensitive [1, p. 116]. However, the test heavily relies on verbatim, where close-ended «yes» or «no» questions can limit the response and consequently, it may mask the measuring effects. After finding the deception in advertising by Burke or ASI or other similar tests, the case goes for the FTC`s consideration. When an advertising campaign comes to the commission`s attention, its staff may attempt to obtain voluntary compliance which is called a consent order. A company that signs a consent order need not admit that it violated the law, but it must agree to stop the disputed practices. If a company is unwilling to sign a consent order, it may dispute the FTC`s findings because a company believes that its advertising is not deceptive and should not be subject to any governmental sanctions. In this case, the commission staff will often issue an administrative complaint, which leads to a formal proceeding by an administrative law judge. After the determination of deception in advertising, the judge will issue cease and desist order. If an advertiser is dissatisfied with the judge`s initial ruling, it may appeal to the FTC commissioners. The FTC is empowered not only to stop the use of an advertisement`s deceptive wording but also to require advertisers to insert specific language and to disclose accurate information in future advertisements, so-called

affirmative disclosure. In rare cases, an advertiser will

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be required to insert specific language into future advertising to undo a long history of past deceptions. Such corrective advertising has been required by FTC only twice since its creation. The first case involved Warner-Lambert Company, maker of Listerine mouthwash, which had for many years suggested in its advertisements that the product could prevent the common cold. The FTC ordered the company to insert into its next advertisement the admission that mouthwash will not help prevent colds or sore throats, a requirement upheld by a federal appellate court [2]. In the second case, the FTC required the manufacturer of Doan`s pills, which the commissioners felt had implied falsity for many years that their product was superior to the other analgesics for the relief of back pain, insert in its next advertising a candid admission that there is no such evidence [3].

2. Voluntary compliance Voluntary compliance refers to the premise that the vast majority of advertisers who understand the proscription of advertising law will not transgress them [4]. The program is designed to increase compliance with the law, which requires advertisers to provide consumers with information that allows them to compare products or services [5]. Attempts for voluntary compliance start with the FTC explaining advertising law rules, in particular requirements for deception in order to undercut frequently conducted deceptive advertising. The program is necessary because (1) unlike adjudication it has timesaving virtues, (2) many violations still result from ignorance of the laws, and (3) businessmen will often more readily abandon questioned practices if they have some assurance that their competitors will simultaneously do likewise [4]. Voluntary compliance might be in the form of advisory opinions or administrative interpretation of the statute.

Advisory opinion is staff-level advice on the compatibility of proposed conduct with the statutes3 [6]. The aim of an advisory opinion is to help clarify FTC rules and decisions, and therefore the commission staff issues such opinions often in response to requests from business and industry groups4 [7]. A formal opinion by the Commission may be rendered when the matter involves a substantial or novel question of fact or law and there is no clear Commission or court precedent [8, p. 9]. The advice is non-binding in the sense of stopping advertising violations from future prosecutions, however, the FTC rules can make it binding if the advertiser is afforded an opportunity promptly to discontinue the conduct in question [8, Rule 1.3(b)]. Thus, the Commission may provide comments and views concerning specific legal issues in formal advisory opinions and in informal staff opinion letters.

Many advertising violations can be avoided and voluntary compliance may be improved through increased understanding of the FTC’s interpretation of the law and enforcement objectives [8]. The Commission declares its enforcement policies to the public by its interpretation of the law, especially through its extra-judicial guidance. The guides help to understand and follow the FTC`s thinking on what types of advertising might be considered deceptive [9, pp. 1-6]. Examples are Guides against Bait Advertising [10], Guides on Advertising of Warranties and Guarantees [11, 12].

The FTC offers general guidelines concerning advertising of particular products or within a particular industry, called Industry Guides.5 Advertising guides for industry play a significant role in the business education of advertisers because if consumers lose faith

3 An advisory opinion is a formal, written statement of views or letter of advice signed by the Secretary at the direction of the Commission in response to a specific request from any individual, group, or firm. 4 For instance, the FTC commissioner Ohlhausen provided advisory opinion concerning POM company`s advertising that made misleading claims about its pomegranate juice products. 5 After drafting industry guides, the FTC organizes meeting so-called Trade Practice Conference, where the Commission distributes the draft for industry members consideration and discussion.

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in advertising, the entire industry suffers [13]. Industry guides offer specific instructions concerning the proper use of product claims and may have relevance for manufacturers of many kinds of products rather than just one, for instance, environmental marketing claims [14]. The guides have two main purposes: (1) to explain to advertisers how the law applies to specific aspects of their advertising, and (2) to aid the FTC staff in evaluating questionable practices. The guides are especially valuable to the small businessman, who is not constantly in contact with the lawyer expert in advertising law.

A related kind of prospective action is the Trade Regulation Rule (TRR), which looks very much like an industry guide but carries the force of law. The FTC is therefore required to follow elaborate public notice procedures in advance of issuing such rules. For instance, the commission proposed a trade regulation rule governing used car sales that would provide some more guidance to consumers [15]. The TRR concerning misleading advertising can be divided into two categories: broad provisions which do little more than restate statutory provisions with notes against violation, and narrowly drawn provisions applying to specific practices of the industry [4]. If broad provisions indicate what kind of violations advertisers should refrain from, detailed provisions provide a framework which constrains advertisers in the formulation of new claims.

Furthermore, the FTC can provide media with clear guidance for screening deceptive advertising, because better screening will increase the credibility of advertising [16]. However, it should not be understood as a massive screening program or network-style clearance procedure for all types of advertisements [13]. The screening process that the FTC asks the media to voluntarily adopt involves simply comparing the claims in an advertisement with the claims on the FTC list. Therefore, the FTC does not ask the media to review scientific studies or substantiation for particular types of deceptive advertising, nor insist that media outlets require television network-style clearance procedures for specific type of deceptive advertising [13].

3. The Russian Federation 1. Procedures: a gradual approach to the identification of deception The procedure concerning misleading advertising is started directly by the application of a consumer who is actually misled by particular advertising. Apart from the consumer application, the proceeding can be initiated as the result of the administrative monitoring of the advertising law enforcement. However, the most frequent and effective way to find a deceptive fact in advertising is through consumer application because consumers are able to recognize deception in its infancy. For instance, the territorial Department Voronezh of FAS started proceeding against «K.R.» LLC. on the basis of the consumer’s application about deception fact. Accordingly, the consumer read in the advertising flyer about a campaign, which stated that «if you find a cheaper product than the advertised product, we will refund you 200 % of the difference». When the consumer found a cheaper price in the other shop, the company rejected to refund the difference arguing that the other shop is not a competitor of the company, and a list of competitors can be found by going to the link indicated in the flyer. Since there was no list of competitors in the flyer, the FAS department found the advertising to be misleading [17, p. 37]. This case analysis shows that the enforcement body is not able to find deception without the consumer`s application.

After receiving the application, the FAS starts the procedure on consideration of deception case, and at the first stage, the FAS identifies and assesses the meaning of the advertised claim. However, the problem in this stage of the proceeding is that the enforcement body does not have experience in clearly distinguishing explicitly

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stated claims from implied ones because the Advertising law does not differentiate explicitly stated and implied claims related to deception. The FAS usually concentrates on the meaning of advertising to find whether the advertised statement contains only one meaning or multiple meanings [18].

The next stage of the proceeding on deception cases is to determine the scope of facts to be included in the subject of proof. The first fact is, of course, the true content of the advertising. The ambiguity of human speech leads to the fact that in many cases advertising phrases and sentences have both direct and implicit meanings. After analyzing the meaning of advertising, the FAS proceeds to examine the motives of the advertising. A misleading statement creates legal consequences only if it has a motive that led to ambiguity and that requires careful study. A simple attempt to mislead might not be recognized as an offense. The plaintiff must have suffered damage as a result of his actions caused by the deception.

If the disseminated advertisement can lead to unfair competition, then it must be stopped immediately. Otherwise, if the enforcement body waits for the appearance of advertising impact, then advertisers should not only suppress such advertising but also eliminate the possible consequences of advertising. This situation, in turn, will lead to additional costs such as costs of regulatory bodies and parties of the litigation in order to establish the fact and extent of damage. Obviously, this approach is contrary to the interests of society, business, and the state.

The main problem in enforcement is that the FAS tries to identify and examine a deception statement independently without any help from experts. The issue here is the administrative interests of the FAS to keep control over misleading advertising regulation, which means that the FAS, as an administrative authority, subjectively holds absolute power to identify, control, consider, make decisions and punish deceptive violations [19]. However, recently the FAS has started referring to dictionaries and to the conclusions of expert linguists. For instance, in Baltika Beverage Company case (N A56-7201/2011) the advertisement states «Crazy! Замочи эту скуку. Crazy Коля Crazy Кола», which means in English «Crazy! Soak this boredom. Crazy Kolya (a name of a typical Russian guy) Crazy Cola» [17, pp. 82-83]. Here the second meaning of the word «скука» refers to an abusive word; therefore the FAS found the advertising in violation taking into account the dictionary meaning and conclusion of expert linguists.

However, some cases heavily depend on product characteristics, and the FAS or courts rely on complex, and multiple expertizes. Among a huge variety of advertising, a group of advertisements tells consumers about the functional characteristics of a product and obviously needs a particular rationale. For example, in drug advertisements, consumers usually face phrases such as a cough medicine suppresses coughs the fastest or a food supplement helps you to lose 10 kg in 10 days. Such advertising messages cause problems in practice [18]. Namely, if there is the phrase “scientifically proven” in the advertising statement, then the question arises about how much and what scientific evidence, in this case, will be enough - one, three, or ten scientific studies? If it concerns drugs, should these studies be conducted in humans or on experimental animals? What is the minimum number of people to participate in the study?

The analysis of answers to the above-mentioned questions shows that experts rarely reach a consensus on a particular problem. At the same time, advertisers are constantly trying to improve the characteristics of their products, using the latest scientific achievements or results of new scientific research. Accordingly, they create and use advertising statements in which they refer to scientific justifications. Thus, advertisers attract consumers to their products in light of scientific discoveries and

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in comparison with competing products. Here, there is a problem of reliability or substantiation and its exact communication in advertising. After finding the fact of deception and proving it with evidence, the FAS sends a cease and desist order to the violator to stop misleading advertising or requires a public refutation of the misleading advertising through so-called counter-advertising. If the violator does not fulfill the request, the FAS will apply to the court to impose an administrative fine for improper advertising [20].

However, the main problem in practice is that Russia has no voluntary compliance program. In particular, an advisory opinion concerning advertising content might prevent deception cases. Moreover, administrative interpretation of the advertising law in the form of industry guidelines or trade regulation rules might clarify legal requirements for improper advertising. Thus, the voluntary compliance program in Advertising law enforcement would be a useful practical guide for advertisers to avoid offensive claims in advertising.

Uzbekistan Proceedings concerning misleading advertising cases might be started by the application of consumers (other state authorities or mass media) or by administrative monitoring of compliance with the Advertising law. The monitoring of Advertising law compliance is called analysis [21]. The analysis of fulfillment of legal requirements can be conducted in the form of examination and inspection. The examination means collecting documents and materials by requesting them, followed by learning and analyzing collected materials by questioning them on improper compliance with Advertising law requirements. Unlike examination, the inspection is conducted by going out to the place of an advertising campaign, to observe advertising dissemination and record them in order to identify a deceptive fact [21].

The Competition Committee (Competition Promotion and consumer protection committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan) attempts to identify deceptive advertising in the market by using the empirical methods of examination in the following steps [22]. First, the committee send the inquiry to the manufacturer (1) about the year of fabrication by asking when and how long a product has been produced, and (2) about the existence of censures by asking whether there were any complaints about quality. If it turns out that the product has been in the market for several years and has not had any complaints, this will be an advantage for the manufacturer. Second, the committee send the inquires to all state authorities related to the quality of products such as the Ministry of Health, the Agency for Standardization, Metrology and Certification, and the Sanitary-Epidemiology Stations of Uzbekistan. If the state bodies confirm that there were no complaints about the quality of the product, then the committee goes to the next step. Third, the committee organizes the working group which consist of non-governmental organizations, authoritative state bodies and manufacturer. The last step is the identification of the product through consumers` degustation, where the committee offers consumers of different ages and gender to taste some similar products without the label in shopping malls or supermarkets. If the majority of consumers evaluate that the disputed product is the worst among other proposed products, the committee will start proceedings against the manufacturer of the disputed product. Thus, the committee has its own empirical methods to determine deception in advertisements.

The next issue that is challenging for the committee is to identify an exaggeration in advertising, because, as the committee states, examination of an exaggeration statement has some difficulties in proceedings. The advertisers “abuse” their “advertising power” thinking “the taste is a purely individual matter”. At first glance, it seems that the exaggeration in the advertisement is very difficult to prove,

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however, all procedures are elaborated by the committee. The committee usually considers exaggeration cases based on the principle “be ready to prove, before the using superlative adjective in advertising”. As the head of the department of the committee pointed out, in a case when a seller stated in an advertisement that a product is the most delicious, he or she must prove this statement. For instance, in the advertisement for “Sarbast” beer, the manufacturer stated that the “Sarbast” is “a number one beer” in Uzbekistan, accordingly the manufacturer proved the statement “number one” with the certificate. Moreover, during the proceedings, the committee follows the principle of “protection of the interests of both parties of advertising: entrepreneur and consumer” [22]. According to this principle, the manufacturer has a right to appeal or complain the decision of the committee to the Economic Court. Thus, the committee has a proceeding principle in order to consider exaggeration cases in an appropriate way, even if this kind of proceedings are difficult in terms of proof.

As a result of analysis, in particular examination and inspection, if the committee finds deception fact in advertising, it will officially initiate administrative procedures for consideration of the deception case. During the consideration of the case, the committee may involve experts, field specialists, linguists and other interested persons [23]. As a result of consideration, the committee may send cease and desist orders to stop the misleading advertising or can require to conduct counter-advertising. Counter-advertising is a refutation of improper advertising which is conducted by redistributing the advertising in order to eliminate its actual or possible negative effects [24]. In case of the violator does not fulfill the cease and desist order or request for counter-advertising, the committee applies to the economic court to impose an administrative surcharge for improper advertising6 [25]. However, the advertiser may argue the committee`s order or request and has a right to complain about the administrative decision to the economic court [26].

4. Conclusions The Competition Committee of Uzbekistan, as an enforcement body, does not have a voluntary compliance program for the enforcement of the Advertising law. The enforcement lacks a mechanism to provide an advisory opinion concerning advertising claims. Moreover, there is no guidance on deception standard application, which might have a detailed explanation of the nature, interpretation, evaluation and implementation of deception. The existence of non-legally binding instruments might help for clear and effective enforcement, in particular, it serves to prevent misunderstanding, misclassification and diversity in the implementation of legal requirements for misleading advertising which currently exist in practice.

The committee also does not have cooperation with mass media, trade industries as well as consumer protection association. There are no any industry guides or trade regulation rules in the advertising field, which make clear application of the Advertising law requirements in a particular field of industry.

The enforcement of Advertising law has experienced very weak co-regulation. There is neither a permanent organization nor trade practice conference (in the form of one-off meetings) to identify legal standards applicable to a particular industry in a collaborative way. Lack of co-regulation might bring abuse of authoritative power by the Competition Committee or, conversely, disobedience of some industries, for example, food and drug industries that will set legal standards for their commercial interest without taking into account public health requirements.

According to Article 178(1) of the Code on Administrative

Responsibility, improper advertising entails imposition of administrative fine in amount of from five to seven times minimum wage.

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