Search results : 234

Since 1 January 2006, RTL-TVI, Club RTL and Plug TV have ceased to be considered as television broadcasting services in the French-speaking Community. That, in any case, was the view held by the Belgian PLC TVI which, until 31 December 2005, was the editor of these services and which claims that editorial responsibility for these three services now lies in the hands of its parent company, the Luxembourgish company CLT-UFA, on the basis of Luxembourgish concessions (see IRIS 2006-3: 10). The Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (audiovisual regulatory authority - CSA) of the French-speaking Community...

In its ruling in case C-356/04 the Court of Justice sheds light on the compatibility of advertisements comparing ranges of products with the Misleading and Comparative Advertising Directive. Colruyt, a company operating a chain of supermarket stores in Belgium, availed itself of two methods of comparative advertising. The first consisted in comparing general price levels in various supermarkets on the basis of prices charged in respect of a wide range of identical or similar basic consumables offered by itself and its competitors. As a second tactic, Colruyt advertised a line of products asserting...

The European Commission has asked the Belgian authorities to clarify the definition of the public obligations and the financing of Flemish-Belgian public service broadcaster VRT. The investigation into the financing of the public broadcaster was initiated following several complaints from commercial broadcasters in 2004. After looking into the complaints, the Commission issued its preliminary views concluding that the Belgian financing system is not in line with the EC Treaty rules on state aid. The EC Treaty’s article 87 prohibits subsidies liable to distort competition. Since the start of the...

On 10 February 2006, the new Flemish Regulator for the Media (FRM) was officially established. As an external autonomous agency, the FRM is responsible for licensing and supervising radio and television broadcasting organisations, cable networks and radio and television services in the Flemish Community. The FRM integrates the competences of the former Vlaams Commissariaat voor de Media (Flemish Media Authority), the former Vlaamse Geschillenraad voor Radio en Televisie (Flemish Council for Radio and Television Disputes) and the former Vlaamse Kijk- en Luisterraad (Flemish Listening and Viewing...

Since 1 January 2006, RTL-TVI, Club RTL and Plug TV have ceased to be television broadcasting services in the French-speaking Community. That, in any case, was the view held by the Belgian PLC TVI which, until then, was the editor of these services. On 3 October 2005 its board of directors decided to not request renewal of the authorisation that it had been granted by the Government of the French-speaking Community in 1996 for the RTL-TVI and Club RTL services, and which lapsed on 31 December 2005. At the end of December 2005, TVI also announced its renunciation of the authorisation issued in March...