On September 1st, 2017 the State Procurement Service issued an explanation notice to its territorial bodies regarding the classification of information posted outside pharmacies in terms of advertising legislation. In particular, the object of analysis was the possibility of using in the pharmacy signboard such phrases as "Pharmacy of Low Prices", "Pharmacy of the Best Prices" and "Economy Pharmacy".
As before, the state agency notes that a signboard or a board containing information about the registered name of the entity, the logo, the type of its commercial activities (if it is not clear from the registered name of the entity) and the working hours, which is placed on the internal surface of the leased or own premises, on the external surface of a building or construction not higher than the ground floor, or on the floor where the leased or own premises are located, or at the entrance to such premises, is not considered advertisement.
However, the agency underlines the fact that the way of presenting the above information on the pharmacy signboard cannot contain information on prices that can affect the consumer's intentions to purchase goods in the pharmacy, and information that may mislead the consumer about the intention of the pharmacy to serve certain social groups of the population.
At this point readers may come to the logical conclusion that the phrases "Pharmacy of Low Prices", "Pharmacy of the Best Prices" and "Economy Pharmacy" are prohibited and will be classified as advertising, moreover, unfair.
However, the State Procurement Service upon analysing the provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On Protection of Rights to Mark for Goods and Services" came to different conclusions. In particular, the key criterion to assess the legitimacy of using the signboard of the above content for advertising purposes will be whether the pharmacy has registered the corresponding phrase as a mark for goods and services.
The agency notes that the mark for goods and services is an image, and all elements of it should be perceived as a distinctive image, and not as words having semantic meaning. Therefore, if for advertising the text which is a registered mark for goods and services is used, this is lawful, since it is not a violation of the requirements of the legislation on advertising.
We draw your attention that these explanations of the State Procurement Service will not affect the qualification of the activities of the business entity by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. It also should be noted that according to the laws in the field of protection from unfair competition, it is prohibited to mislead consumers by disseminating incomplete, false or inaccurate information in particular using unfair way of its presenting, suppressing certain facts or giving unclear formulations.
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