Limits On Comparative Price-Based Advertising Between Shops Of Different Sizes

On 8 February 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the "ECJ") held that advertisements issued by a retail chain that includes stores of different sizes and compares the prices of products sold in its larger stores with those found in a competing retail chain's smaller stores without clearly informing consumers of the difference underlying the comparison are unlawful within the meaning of Directive 2006/114/EC of 12 December 2006 concerning misleading and comparative advertising (the "Advertising Directive"), read in conjunction with Directive 2005/29/EC of 11 May 2005 concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market (the "Unfair Commercial Practices Directive") (ECJ, 8 February 2017, Case C-562/15, Carrefour Hypermarchés SAS v. ITM Alimentaire International SASU).