Mondelēz fined $130,000 for BelVita tennis ad in Bulgaria

25-Mar-2015 - Last updated on 25-Mar-2015 at 10:14 GMT

Bulgaria's top-seeded tennis pros Tsvetana Pironkova and Grigor Dimitrov were painted as brand endorses, said ad watchdog. Photo Credit: CPC

Mondelēz International has been hit with a fine from Bulgaria ad watchdog after it posted photographs of tennis pros on its Facebook page without permission.

The Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said on Monday that pictures of tennis players Tsvetana Pironkova and Grigor Dimitrov with the mark “belVita good morning!” on the brand’s Bulgaria Facebook page were promotional materials that implied the athletes endorsed the brand.

“Since the Commission found that tennis players are not promoters of the brand, in this case it is a misleading advertising regarding the manner of its presentation,” said CPC in a release.

It imposed a 236,431 lev ($132,462) fine on Mondelēz Bulgaria.

The company’s Facebook page was managed by web marketing firm Noway.

Noway was handed a lesser fine of 1516 lev ($849) for misleading advertising.