Germany
[DE] Draft Amendments to the Telemedia Act and Provisional Tobacco Act
IRIS 2010-4:1/20
Christian M. Bron
Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels
On 15 February 2010, the Bundesregierung (Federal Government) introduced in the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) a bill amending the Telemediengesetz (Telemedia Act - TMG) and a second bill amending the Vorläufiges Tabakgesetz (Provisional Tobacco Act).
Both bills largely correspond with the bill presented in May 2009 (see IRIS 2009-6: 10) and are designed to transpose Directive 2007/65/EC, particularly its provisions concerning on-demand audiovisual media services and the ban on tobacco advertising.
The amendments to the TMG concern its scope (Art. 1(6) of the bill), the broadening of concept definitions (Art. 2(1)(1) and (6)) and rules on the country of establishment of audiovisual media services (Art. 2a).
The amendments in the second bill amending the Provisional Tobacco Act relate to the ban on sponsorship and product placement (Art. 21b).
The Bundesrat (upper house of parliament) approved the second bill amending the Provisional Tobacco Act on 5 March 2010.
References
- Entwurf eines Ersten Gesetzes zur Änderung des Telemediengesetzes
- http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/17/007/1700718.pdf
- First bill amending the Telemedia Act
- Entwurf des Zweiten Gesetzes zur Änderung des Vorläufigen Tabakgesetzes
- http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/17/007/1700719.pdf
- Second bill amending the Provisional Tobacco Act
- Stellungnahme des Bundesrats vom 5. März 2010
- http://www.bundesrat.de/cln_152/SharedDocs/Drucksachen/2010/0001-0100/30-10_28B_29,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/30-10%28B%29.pdf
- Statement of the upper house of parliament of 5 March 2010
This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.