Issue:
A public civil procedure [ação civil pública] questioning an abusive marketing campaign titled "Tirolzinho Transfoma". The company promoted recycling competitions between schools and distributed sugar-sweetened beverages to children in the school environment.
Summary:
Overview of the case: abusive marketing “Tirolzinho Transforma”
In 2017, Instituto Alana presented an administrative complaint to Office of the Prosecutor of the State of Santa Catarina [Ministério Público do Estado de Santa Catarina]. The case was about the abusive marketing campaing “Tirolzinho Transforma”. Briefly, the company “Tirol” promoted a competition among students, in partnership with their schools, to create toys using recyclable materials. Moreover, they should be preferably made with Tirol products, as specified in the content regulation.
Then, in 2018, the Office of the Prosecutor of the State of Santa Catarina filed public civil lawsuit [ação civil pública] against Empresa de Laticínios Tirol LTDA due that abusive marketing campaign.
Court Decision
After that, a first instance judge decided that Tirol should refrain from conducting its campaign in school environments. It had also considered the campaing “Tirolzinho Transforma” an abusive marketing. As a result, the defendant Tirol appealed the decision, leading to another company failure. Besides, the company had to remove any of its symbols and logos from school environments.
The Santa Catarina Court of Appeals decided to uphold the first instance decision. The campaign was considered abusive and prohibited according the Consumer Defense Code [Código de Defesa do Consumidor] (Article 37) and the CONANDA’s Resolution No. 163 of 2014. In this regard, the Rapporteur concluded that by targeting educational institutions, Tirol engaged in an action that, despite claiming to be educational, exposed students to marketing, exploiting their vulnerability.