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It was nothing new for Belgium - the legislator and a number of users have felt for some time that some collecting societies were not operating in a transparent fashion and were abusing their dominant position. A number of bills have been tabled over the past ten years and more, aimed at reinforcing the supervision of collecting societies, but none has ever been adopted. The Act of 10 December 2009 was gazetted (published in the Moniteur Belge) on 23 December 2009, and came into force on 1 April 2010. The new Act confirms that collecting societies are required to manage the rights recognised by...

On 18 January 2010, the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Regulator for the Media) rendered two decisions concerning SBS Belgium, in which it concluded there had been violations of the new rules on product placement and sponsorship. These are the first decisions in which these topics have been considered under the new Flemish Media Decree, in force only since 1 September 2009. The first decision dealt with two instances of product placement in two distinct episodes of the programme ‘The Block Ghent’. In particular, the requirement that programmes that contain product placement should not...

Product placement has been authorised in the French-speaking Community of Belgium since 19 December 2009, in compliance with Article 21 of the Coordinated Decree of 26 March 2009 on audiovisual media services. By totally banning product placement in news broadcasts and children’s programmes, the legislator has in fact gone further than is required by the AVMS Directive, but the amendment is significant nonetheless: in all other types of programme, the placement of accessories is authorised, whereas product placement stricto sensu (i.e., in return for payment) is only accepted in cinematographic...

At the end of 2009, the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Regulator for the Media) issued several decisions regarding audiovisual commercial communications. Two of them will be addressed below. In a decision of 23 November 2009 the Flemish Regulator imposed on MTV Networks Belgium a fine amounting to EUR 2,500 for multiple breaches of the regulation on teleshopping. The Regulator considered three programmes (‘Hot or Not’, ‘Your Take Ringtone Chart’ and ‘Your Take’) to be teleshopping programmes. According to Article 82, §1 (1) of the Flemish Media Decree 2009, these programmes have to be...

The new Flemish Media Decree of 27 March 2009, which entered into force on 1 September 2009, allows product placement in the programmes and under the conditions stipulated in the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (Articles 98-101). Unlike the Directive, the Flemish Decree stipulates that only in programmes produced or commissioned by the media service provider itself or a company affiliated to it must viewers be clearly informed about product placement (Article 100 §1, 4). With this goal in mind, all Flemish broadcasting organisations have been using the same logo with regard to the appearance...