Search results : 1510

On 23 May 2012, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG), in a judgment that has not yet been published in full, ruled that the Bundesländer may, in their media legislation, empower the Landesmedienanstalten (Land media authorities - LMA) to confiscate advertising income received by private TV broadcasters in connection with programmes judged to be illegal. The case concerned clips shown in the “Bimmel-Bingo” section of the programme “TV total” broadcast by the TV company ProSieben, in which a camera crew had rung the doorbells of single-family houses unannounced at...

On 23 May 2012, the Bundeskommunikationssenat (Federal Communications Board - BKS) ruled that Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian public service broadcaster - ORF) had not infringed the ban on sponsorship of news programmes and political information broadcasts enshrined in Article 17(4) of the ORF-Gesetz (ORF Act - ORF-G) by broadcasting its weekly “Schauplatz Börse” programme. A complaint had been lodged, arguing that the programme “Schauplatz Börse” was a topical news programme for the stock market and financial sector, which should not be sponsored. The topical nature of the programme was clear...

On 3 May 2012 the Nordic Consumer Ombudsmen presented a Joint Position regarding marketing in social media. These kinds of guidelines are not legally binding, but are generally well regarded and relied upon by Swedish courts when determining good market practices. In the Joint Position, the Nordic Consumer Ombudsmen confirmed that Marknadsföringslagen (the Swedish Marketing Practices Act - MPA) is technology neutral and applies in full to social media. The Joint Position deals among other things with issues such as (i) unsolicited commercial messages, especially relating to Facebook as this was...

On 19 March 2012 Granskningsnämnden för radio och TV (the Swedish Broadcasting Commission - GRN) delivered a decision regarding the promotion of a commercial interest in an improper manner in a television program. The case concerned the application of sections 5:5, 17:5 and 19:4 of Radio- och TV-lagen (The Radio- and Televisions Act - RTL). The RTL is based inter alia on Directive 89/552/ECC, as amended by 97/36/EC. Section 5:5 of the RTL states that programs that are not advertising may not encourage the purchase or rental of goods or services or provide other marketable foreign elements, or highlight...

On 24 April 2012 the Consiliul Naţional al Audiovizualului (National Council for Electronic Media - CNA) decided to withdraw the audiovisual license of the commercial TV station OTV as from 29 May 2012, almost 10 months before its normal expiry date of 1 April 2013. The Council had already reduced twice, on 27 March and 10 April 2012, the duration of the license of OTV, each time by half of the remaining period of validity. The sanctions, the most severe ever taken by the CNA, were due to OTV’s repeated and continual breaches of audiovisual legislation with regard to political advertising...