The purpose of the article is to reflect on the question to what extent a situation may arise in which codes of ethics are not needed or even inappropriately applied. The possible advantages of codes of ethics are relatively well known, and there is ample literature on them. Literature on the conditions for the adoption of ethical codes is also quite common. There are far fewer articles about the uselessness of ethical codes in a certain context of reality. Even less is said about the detrimental consequences of the use of codes of ethics in their partial use. Our contribution is an attempt to show in what situations a code of ethics can act as a useless institution with no real influence, and also that certain elements of a code of ethics can lead to detrimental consequences if they are adopted and implemented.