Legal Ruling Against Global Barcodes (The Barcodes Shop):
On September 10, 2015, the EASA (European Advertising Standards Authority) issued a ruling against Global Barcodes, S.L. “The Barcodes Shop.” This ruling stated –
“On September 10th 2015, the Jury of Advertising has issued an Opinion on an advertisement of the company Global Barcodes, S.L./
The complaint was filed against an advertisement broadcasted on the Internet. The advertisement offered the purchase of barcodes in European countries indicating that it was an authorized dealer of EAN numbers. Such numbers had been issued by the American companies which were members of the Uniform Code Council before 28th August 2002. The advertisement also displayed several logos and trademarks, such as “ISO 9001”, “Barcodes Numbers Trade”, “Verisign. The Internet Trust Company”, y “Trust Online”.
The Jury concluded that the advertisement contained objective claims referred to the characteristics of the promoted products, such as the possibility of buying barcodes in the United Kingdom, or the inclusion of the logos mentioned above. The Jury understood that it could be deduced from those claims that the Advertiser had been reckoned by official accreditations. According to rule 23 of the Code of Advertising Practice, the advertiser must meet the burden of proof by submitting sufficient evidence in other to prove the truthfulness and accuracy of the advertisement. However, as the advertiser had not submitted any answer, the Jury concluded that the advertisement was misleading and breached the rule 14 of the Code of Advertising Practice. Likewise, as the advertisement was broadcasted on the Internet, it also breached the Article 3.1 of the Ethical Code of Confianza Online.”