Lithuania: Pigu looses appeal at Supreme Court

The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania dismissed the appeal by UAB Pigu and left unchanged the decision of Vilnius Regional Administrative Court upholding €5,400 fine which Konkurencijos taryba—Lithuania’s competition regulator—imposed on the company for misleading advertising.

The competition authority found that on July 29, 2015, the company disseminated misleading advertising claims: “The big summer sale; Special perfume and home appliance offers for one day!; up to 80 %“; “SUPER offer! Perfume and home appliances – up to 80%!“. Consumers were offered to buy goods of two different categories, however, the 80% discount was applied only to 1 sort of perfume out of 171, while the highest discount to household appliances was only 58%.

The Court agreed with Vilnius Regional Court that consumers might have expected to buy a sufficient amount of perfume and home appliances with an 80% discount. The Court acknowledged that it was unfair to disseminate information about the 80% discount if it was applied only to 1—or 0.58%—of perfume, and did not even apply to home appliances. That being said, there were sufficient grounds to impose a fine on Pigu for the infringement of the Law on Advertising.