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The European Commission has officially requested Germany to submit information on national legislation restricting the supply of gambling services, the first step in an infringement procedure under Article 226 of the EC Treaty. The European Commission wishes to investigate the possible infringement of Articles 43, 49 and 56 of the Treaty. The Commission’s inquiry focuses on a number of provisions of the new Glücksspiel-Staatsvertrag (Inter-State Gambling Agreement), which entered into force on 1 January 2008 having been agreed by the Minister-Presidents of the Bundesländer in December 2006. Under...

On 13 December 2007, Kammarrätten i Stockholm (The Stockholm Administrative Court of Appeals) delivered judgment in a case regarding unlawful broadcasting of advertising. The case concerned the application of provisions in Radio- och TV-lagen (The Radio and TV Act - RTL). The Radio and TV Act is based on Directive 89/552/EEC as amended by Directive 97/36/EC. On 31 August 2004, the Swedish nationwide television channel TV 4 broadcast “ Den starkare ” (our translation for the purposes of this article: “The stronger one”) which is a play written by the famous Swedish author August Strindberg. The...

On 1 January 2008, a new amendment to the Codul de reglementare a conţinutului audiovizual (Regulatory Code for Audiovisual Content) entered into force. It was adopted by the Consiliul Naţional al Audiovizualului (regulatory authority for electronic media - CNA ) via Decision No. 1105 of 20 December 2007 (see IRIS 2008-1:17). The amendment concerns the rules set out in Art. 138 concerning advertising for food products aimed at children. As before, Art. 138 stipulates that medicinal properties of food products and food supplements ( suplimente alimentare ) must not be mentioned in advertising; (para....

In early January 2008 the Commissioner for Audiovisual Media Regulation published a general concept paper for a new media legislation. The publication of the document was preceded by the elaboration of a National Audiovisual Media Strategy in the summer of 2007. Following the publication of the draft strategy a public consultation took place. During this consultation the Commissioner for Audiovisual Media Regulation received 67 observations on approximately 650 pages in total. The concept paper, now published, summarises the legislative implications of the National Audiovisual Media Strategy by...

At a press conference on 8 January 2008, the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, made an announcement that received great attention, when he said that he was considering bringing an end to all advertising on the public channels (France 2, France 3, France 4 and France 5). His comment was that “if the public-service channels operate according to the same criteria, the same demands and the same logic as the private channels, then there is no point in having a public service”. The public-service channels are financed by a licence fee (EUR 116 per household in mainland France in 2007) and advertising....