On Tort Liability Of The Advertising Spokesperson

With the development of market economy, advertising is ubiquitous in life. And now, it has become the most effective method to propagandize good and service business quickly. As the increasing fierce market competition, some advertisers are drove by profit to hire spokespersons by recommending commodities unrealistic, which seriously violates the legitimate rights and interests of customers, disturbs the normal market economic order, and causing an extremely negative social impact. This paper is based on the present legislation, researching related issues of the trots of advertisement spokesperson by adsorbing advanced legislative experiences, and putting forward several suggestions to perfect relevant laws and regulations of our country.This paper can be divided into the following four parts.The first part is about general issues of tort liability of the advertising spokespersons. First the definition of advertising spokesperson is determined by the behavior comparison in advertising campaign with entertainer. Then the legal status of it will be illustrated through comparison between different points of view. That is, the legal status of spokesperson and advertiser is equal, as they are all the significant participants of advertising campaign.The second part is the responsibility identification of spokesperson. By the analyzing of several theories, the point of the article is that, the principle of presumption of fault liability should be applicable to infringement of spokesperson, which is reasonable and feasible, can reduce burden of proof of customers while avoiding the defect that spokesperson could not advocate for rights in principle of no-fault liability. And the constitution of liability for tort is discussed mainly from four aspects, traditional illegal behavior, damage facts, causation, and subjective fault to discuss the four elements of advertising tort.The third part is about the responsibility of the advertising spokesperson. First, it states the spokesperson should undertake joint liability, but not the proportional liability and supplementary liability. Then the argument of this article is demonstrates by joint infringement theory. Finally, it introduces the methods of bearing tort liability, with assumptions of responsibility as supplementary forms to make up for the loss of customers.The fourth part mainly discusses the current shortage of legislation in our country. It points out that although there is stipulation state the spokesperson should bear joint liability, the content is not detailed, as the doctrine of liability fixation is not clear, liability for damage should be perfect, etc. Based on the advanced legislative experience, the author holds the point that doctrine of liability fixation should be cleared, and lead in punitive damages system and carry out joint liability in accordance with different situation.