A Study On The Tort Liability Of Ordinary Consumer Endorsers In False Advertisements

It has come to an agreement in our academic circles that the endorsers of the false advertisements should bear tort liability; also it has been stipulated in "Food Safety Law". However, the ordinary consumer endorsers have not been distinguished with celebrity endorsers, both in legal provisions and academic research. Actually, the ordinary consumer endorsers are very different from celebrity endorsers in the form of endorsement, scope, endorsement fee, liability ability social responsibility and social harm of false endorsement, it is too harsh and will cause a series of problems if we make no distinction between them and apply them to the same legal provisions. So it is necessary to make distinction between ordinary consumer endorsers and celebrity endorsers in academic research, legislation and legal practice.This paper mainly adopts documents and information study, the comparative study, analysis induction study, empirical study as well as other research methods, using the relative theories of law, journalism and sociology comprehensively, meanwhile, absorbs the achievements about the tort liability of celebrity endorsers who make false endearments, focus on the tort liability of ordinary consumer endorsers and make contrast with celebrity endorsers, list the dispute in academic circles and analyze them, then put forward the view of myself, try to explore a new way for the legislation and legal practice to investigate the liability of the endorsers of false advertisements.This paper is divided into five parts, not including the preface and conclusion.Part 1, the introduction of ordinary consumer endorsers, including the classification of advertisement endorsers, the differences between ordinary consumer endorsers and celebrity endorsers, the legal status of ordinary consumer endorsers in the false advertisements, the reason why ordinary consumer endorsers should bear legal responsibility. Among them, the differences between ordinary consumer endorsers and celebrity endorsers are very important for the study of their different tort liability in the following parts, so the author list four differences to give a detail description.Part 2, defining the properties of the civil liability. Several possible properties are listed, and then contracting fault liability and liability for breach of contract were excluded, and determine the tort liability of ordinary consumer endorsers.Part 3, the imputation principle of the tort liability which ordinary consumer endorsers bear if they endorse false advertisements. The imputation principle of tort liability has a significant effect on constitutive requirements. The imputation principle for ordinary consumer endorsers should be different from that for celebrity endorsers; this is an important point in this paper, so the author has written a lot. Ordinary consumer endorsers apply to presumption of fault liability and the celebrity endorsers apply to liability without fault.Part 4, the constitutive requirement of the tort liability which ordinary consumer endorsers bear if they endorse in false advertisements. According to the imputation principle, the constitutive requirements include the behavior of false endorsement, the harmful consequences, causal relationship and subjective fault. The celebrity endorsers apply to liability without fault, so their subjective fault is not one of the constitutive requirements of their liability.Part 5, how the ordinary consumer endorsers who have endorsed in false advertisement to bear the tort liability. List the way to bear the tort liability first, an then study the specific distribution of the joint and several liability, it is one of the significant point in this paper. Here the author distinguishes ordinary consumer endorsers and celebrity endorsers to study. At last, discuss the excuses for nonresponsibility of the ordinary consumer endorsers who have endorsed in false advertisement and should bear tort liability.