Sarita Schröder, Philippe Probst and Selma Ünlü introduce the MARQUES Unfair Competition Team’s new Chart on Self-Regulatory Organisations for Advertising and Unfair Competition Matters:

Self-regulation is a system by which the business community and other non-governmental players set voluntary rules and standards of practice that may go beyond legal obligations.

What are SROs?

Self-regulatory organisations (SROs) are responsible for enforcing compliance with these rules.

While international organisations, such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), play a substantial role in the development of self-regulation, each jurisdiction has its own approach to how self-regulation is handled in practice.

With the increasing digitisation and globalisation of advertising and other business activities, it is becoming increasingly important for businesses to familiarise themselves with the self-regulation of advertising and unfair competition matters across Europe and the globe.

A practical overview

The purpose of the chart is to provide corporate lawyers and attorneys, among others, with a practical and user-friendly overview of SROs for advertising and unfair competition matters operating in various jurisdictions with general powers over the full spectrum (or a broad range) of industries.

The chart covers advertising and unfair competition matters, not consumer protection matters (redress for defective products and services, price regulations, consumer credit law, etc.). Industry-specific SROs are also not covered by the chart (e.g. tobacco, alcohol, medical and health, or food industry SROs).

However, to the extent that industry-specific SROs are of significant importance and handle advertising and/or unfair competition matters, these are briefly identified.

MARQUES members can download the chart on the Team’s page (login required). It currently covers five jurisdictions, with more expected to be added as the project develops.

Sarita Schröder (Hannes Snellman Attorneys Ltd), Philippe Probst (Fuhrer Marbach) and Selma Ünlü (NSN) are members of the Unfair Competition Team