BYD Ad Banned For Roasting Stellantis In Trade-In Offer

6 months ago by schizoidman to c/electricvehicles

BYD's latest offer to customers trading in a car with a wet timing belt ruffled a few feathers over at Stellantis

BYD used the ad to offer buyers up to €10,000 ($11,800) to those who bought a car and traded in a vehicle with a wet timing belt. That just happens to describe the timing system used in Stellantis’ PureTech engines, which run belts through a constant oil bath. These engines have been at the center of several recalls and warranty extensions linked to long-term reliability issues.

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Buffalox 10 points 6 months ago

The IAP ruled that these messages violated Italian advertising rules against defamation, misleading commercial communication, and unfair comparative advertising.

Good call by the Italian authorities, I admit the way BYD did it as a trade-in offer is pretty clever, but comparative advertising is near impossible to do legally in EU exactly for the reasons stated. It will almost always be unfair and misleading, as it focus on features that disfavor the competition. This can quickly become an issue of actual defamation.

On another note, Chinese car makers can apparently make deals with EU for lower tariffs if they promise to not sell their cars too cheap. But how does that work when they make attractive trade-in offers?

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dupelet_comments 10 points 6 months ago

How is it defamation if it's true?

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QWho 0 points 6 months ago

It will almost always be unfair and misleading, as it focus on features that disfavor the competition.

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dupelet_comments 3 points 6 months ago

So if an ad were to make fun of how horrible Tesla's Full Self Driving feature is, that would be unfair and misleading? As opposed to the pain simple truth?

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QWho 0 points 6 months ago

You can do as you please as a private person. If you are BYD, VW or Ford one has to play by the rules of the market.

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dupelet_comments 1 point 6 months ago

The question was how is it defamation, you're giving a non-answer that's nothing more than a blatant appeal to authority.

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QWho 1 point 6 months ago

Well, I am not the IAP nor the original comment author. But as far as I understand the rules, every comparative advertisement, that is saying competitor X is bad instead of our product Y is good, has the same problem: X can easily say that the selected feature is just one random pick of a range of features. They may retaliate with some other fact. That may also be factual true, let's say, BYD cars are build without union oversight.

And that starts a negative cycle. You can be in favour of that. It might be entertaining. But by the book that is not allowed to keep advertisement a little more civilized.

Whilst I'm not defending any advertisement at all, one can easily see what happens when it is allowed to talk about your enemies instead of what you provide. Just look at the logical end of this in form of the attack ads of the US political campaigns.

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dupelet_comments 1 point 6 months ago

The question I was asking is, how is it defamation if it's true. You seem to have wandered off onto a tangent of what constitutes ethical / civilised advertising.

one can easily see what happens when it is allowed to talk about your enemies instead of what you provide. Just look at the logical end of this in form of the attack ads of the US political campaigns.

More countries than not allow comparative advertising, and the world is not ending. Why use politics as an inaccurate example when the majority of countries actually practice it to some extent?

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QWho 1 point 6 months ago

So if an ad were to make fun of how horrible Tesla's Full Self Driving feature is, that would be unfair and misleading? As opposed to the pain simple truth?

One thing can be true and still be unfair. A true thing can be misleading. The ruling exists to make the decision easier and make clearer what is allowed or not and what is good business practices:

"Truthfully and fair talking about your business opponent is hard, so let it be and talk about your own strength instead."

and the world is not ending.

We will see about that. ;⁠-⁠)

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