The finest’, ‘the most delicious’, ‘the
absolute best’. These are expressions you often see in
advertisements. Advertisers are given a lot of leeway to use
superlatives, but where does one draw the line between a
manufacturer’s opinion and a literal claim of superior
quality? That question was recently raised again in provisional
relief proceedings between LG and TPV.
TPV has a licence from Philips to manufacture and sell Philips
televisions. TPV lauds one of these televisions as being
‘The best OLED TV you can buy’. TPV showed an
EISA designation in several of its advertisements. Each year, EISA
(Expert Imaging and Sound Association) confers awards on the best
electronics and had conferred the title of ‘best buy’
on that Philips TV. Its competitor, LG, found the slogan misleading
and summonsed TPV to court. According to LG, the problem was that
the Philips TV had been awarded the title of ‘best
buy’, not ‘best product’. The difference between
the two is that ‘best
