Ethics In Marketing

The consumption is a mass phenomenon whose evolution is closely related to the economical and social evolution. During the past decades unprecedented changes took place regarding the share of the volume of products/ services in the structure of the consumption, the means of information and their acquisition, the elimination of the national borders constraints due to globalization, e-commerce, e-marketing, internationalization of production and consumption. Under these conditions of global competition, the necessity of monitoring the observance of the ethical principles of marketing, in the current practices of informing the potential clients, of promoting the products and services, popularizing the offers etc, have led to the appearance of consumer protection associations and of goverment bodies which have imposed an ethical code and a legislation for the protection of the fundamental rights and liberties of the citizens as consumers. The Romanian legislation is currently harmonized and consistent with the one protecting the consumers of the European Union. But the problem of respecting the ethical principles in commercial and marketing practices is deficient in Romania, where the rules are often violated. The article presents the legislative harmonization of Romanian consumers’ rights protection, and a case study regarding the observance of ethics in marketing practices and commercial activities