75522 - Commercial Communication Law

Academic Year 2019/2020

  • Docente: Chiara Alvisi
  • Credits: 8
  • SSD: IUS/01
  • Language: Italian
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Public and Corporate Communication (cod. 8840)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the students will be able to understand the adversting and marketing regulations applicable at the national and international level; they will be able to identify the relevant courts and sector-specific authorities, which can be seized against national and trans-national misleading, hidden or unfair advertising; they will be able to use this knowledge to plan information and marketing strategies.  

Course contents

1. Advertising regulations.   Sources of regulations: self-regulation, EU directives, consumers code. Advertising and Italian Constitution. Public interests protection in advertising regulation: the examples of med-care ad, games and gambles ad, tobacco products ad, alcohol and super-alcohol products ad, beauty and cosmetics ad.

2.Advertising self-regulation. The Institute of Advertising Self-regulation: the Jury, the Code, the Control Committee, the Code acceptance, the self-regulatory procedure.  The average consumer and the pro. Definition of misleading advertising. Definition and examples of hidden advertising offline and online (astroturfing, infomercial, endorsement, native advertising, in-feed adv, etc...) . Examples of unfair advertsing: ambush marketing, guerrilla marketing, viral marketing, ecc... Analysis of the Jury case-law on unfair, misleading, comparative,  hidden advertising. Evolution of the product placement regulation. The IAP Digital Chart.

3. Further ways of control on misleading and hidenn advertising: the protection against the unfair commercial practices, including misleading advertising, provided by the consumer code; the protection against misleading advertising according to the prohibition of unfair competition in the art. 2598 of the Italian civil code. The administrative procedure before the Italian Antitrust Authority. The judicial procedure.

4. Advertising contracts: sponsorship, testimonial, endorsement, bartering, merchandising. Focus on advertising contracts in the sport industry.

Readings/Bibliography

The students are required to use the textbook below indicated as mandatory while they are free to choose one or another of the further books listed below. Moreover, the students are required to use the materials which the professor will suggest during the course:

.- L.C. Ubertazzi, Concorrenza sleale e pubblicità, Cedam, Padova, ult. ed. (mandatory);

- Frignani, Carraro, D'Amico (a cura di), La comunicazione pubblicitaria d'impresa, Manuale giuridico teorico e pratico, Giuffré, Milano, ult. ed.

or

- Auteri, Floridia, Mangini, Olivieri, Ricolfi, Spada, Diritto industriale, proprietà intellettuale e concorrenza, Giappichelli editore, Torino, ult. ed.

or  

- Vanzetti - Di Cataldo, Manuale di diritto industriale, Giuffrè, Milano, ult. ed.

Teaching methods

The course will be mainly delivered through lectures.

Case-law and academic essays will be uploaded on the professor's website immediately before or after the lectures, to let the students to have prompt access to the materials focused during each lecture.

During the course will be arranged mock-up presentations concerning advertisements and ad campaigns already assessed by the Jury or other relevant courts.

Special workshops can be arranged with experts as special guests. The students will be informed of that during the course and also through notices published on the professor's website.

 

Assessment methods

Students skills will be assessed through a multiple choice test at the end of the course. Students who succeed in passing the exam (i.e. grade 18 or above) and wish to resit it will be allowed to do so only once.

Teaching tools

projector, slides, materials uploaded on the professor's web-site, web-resources.

Office hours

See the website of Chiara Alvisi