Court confirms Procon's fine to Habib's for abusive advertising

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The Arab restaurant chain Habib's will have to pay a fine of R$2.4 million for using toys in its television advertisements. The sanction had been imposed by Procon of São Paulo in 2014 and was confirmed by judge Kenichi Koyama, of the 11th Finance Court of São Paulo, this week.

“The suspension interferes in an absolutely sensitive way with the separation of Powers, usurping competence legitimately granted to the Executive Branch, in addition to violating several legal provisions, putting the financial health of the controlling company Eletrobras at risk, harming all citizens as consumers of electricity and, finally , even shaking the institutional normality of the country”, he concludes.

"The advertisement seems to refer more to B2B Lead toys than to other elements, obviously using some manipulation of the poor judgment of those incapable, in order to convince their consumers", said the judge.

At the heart of the issue was the announcement of a snack and toy combo made by the chain. In his decision, Koyama states that there was a violation of article 37, paragraph 2, of the Consumer Protection Code.



The complaint was forwarded to Procon-SP in 2010 by the Alana Institute. "It is undoubtedly another very important victory against abusive advertising strategies from fast food chains , which never tire of using tricks to encourage children to excessively consume food products and the collectible toys that accompany them", celebrates Livia Cattaruzzi, lawyer at Instituto Alana.