JUDr. Jana Strémy, PhD.

Unfair competition and unfair commercial practices of influencers: Legal analysis in the Slovak and comparative context. Influencer marketing has become a dominant and highly effective form of digital advertising, fundamentally changing traditional communication strategies. Its rapid, often unregulated growth poses significant legal challenges in the areas of unfair competition and consumer protection. This article provides a comprehensive legal analysis of influencer misconduct, including hidden advertising, misleading claims, buying fake followers, and writing fake reviews. The article systematically maps and evaluates the Slovak legal framework, covering private law regulation of unfair competition and public law regulation of unfair commercial practices. The methodology includes analysis of relevant Slovak and Czech legislation, doctrine, and application practice. An in-depth, comparative analysis of the German Federal Court of Justice, Spanish and Czech case law offers valuable interpretive guidance. The paper also assesses national self-regulatory mechanisms and gives recommendations de lege ferenda to strengthen legal certainty and protection for all in the digital market.

Prolegomena "The law has treated corporations as what some lawyers call metaphysical persons. That is, they're persons for some purposes, and they're not persons for others." 1) John Witt...