The article is dedicated to a particular aspect of market operations, which is entering into business relations with authoritarian governments, their agencies or other dependent entities, and functioning on the markets of countries considered undemocratic, where human rights are violated and the rule of law is restricted, and where the authorities violate human rights, restrict the rule of law and behave aggressively towards their own citizens or other countries. Running market activities in the outlined socio-political context can be regarded as a manifestation of the dark side of marketing, i.e. acting in an unethical manner and causing harm to specific stakeholders. With reference to the theory of marketing ethics and using selected empirical examples, the need to include the attitudes and behaviors of companies in such conditions in research aimed to identify and assess the dark side of marketing, especially considering the growing threats to the rule of law and basic moral norms, is indicated.