Dear Readers,
Antitrust and advertising can be surprisingly intertwined, but the relationship doesn’t receive much attention. This CPI issue addresses the key question whether can false advertising give rise to violations of the Sherman Act in the U.S. context and how other national competition authorities deal with the issue.
Our contributing authors look at several pertinent dimensions of the matter. Our first compares the American and the Canadian approach to the matter – where while the U.S. courts have issued contradictory rulings on the subject and where the Competition Act allows for civil as well as criminal punishment of false and misleading advertising without a showing of anticompetitive effect. Our next piece looks at the how the courts interpret the Lanham Act in recent rulings to address the issue. One of our authors provides interesting perspective on antitrust and trademarks from brands point of view. We then look at the antitrust and extra territorial ramification of the new Canadian Anti-Spam Law. We then look at how the New Zealand Competition authorities treat issues arising from the intersection of advertising and antitrust law. And many thanks to Steve Szentesi for his help in putting this issue together.
As always, thank you to our great panel of authors.
Sincerely,
CPI Team
