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The Communications Act 2003 established a new unified regulator for communications, Ofcom (see IRIS 2003-8: 10). The Act requires Ofcom to draw up a code for television and radio which covers standards in programmes, sponsorship, fairness and privacy, replacing the six codes of its predecessor bodies (sec. 319). The Code also gives continuing effect to the content requirements of the Television Without Frontiers Directive (see Appendix 2 of the Code). The new Code has now been published and comes into force on 25 July 2005. The matters it covers are: Protecting the Under-Eighteens, Harm and Offence,...

The Federal Government has passed a Bill banning tobacco advertising, which is designed to implement the EC Directive of 26 May 2003 on the European regulation of tobacco advertising. The Bill makes provision for a complete ban on advertising of tobacco products in broadcasting, the press and the Internet. Sponsorship by tobacco companies is also prohibited. The Directive must be transposed into German law by 31 July 2005. A complaint from Germany about the EC Tobacco Advertising Directive has been pending with the ECJ since September 2003. In the complaint, the Federal Government is particularly...

On 20 January 2005, the Munich Obe rlandesgericht (Court of Appeal - OLG) dismissed a complaint by a management consultancy company against a journalist. The plaintiff had made a claim for an injunction, information and damages because the defendant, while investigating an allegation of surreptitious advertising in an ARD evening series, had used business documents belonging to the plaintiff and a secretly filmed video. The video shows a female employee of the plaintiff in a sales meeting with syndicate representatives, offering to place certain themes or products in the series in return for payment....

On 8 March 2005 the Autorità per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni (Italian Communications Authority - AGCOM) amended the Regulation on advertising (see IRIS 2001-9: 11) introducing new provisions on teleshopping. All products/services on sale must be accurately described and the price must be exactly explained according to the distance marketing directive. Astrology services, games, lotteries, etc… charging fee additional to the ordinary cost of phone calls cannot be marketed via teleshopping. Any spot or telepromotion requiring a phone call charging an additional fee must clearly inform the viewers...

The Landesmedienanstalten (regional media authorities) are currently investigating several alleged cases of surreptitious advertising by private TV broadcasters. After a meeting on 30 March 2005, the Gemeinsame Stelle Programm, Werbung und Medienkompetenz (Joint Body on Programming, Advertising and Media Competence - GSPWM) announced that it had found a number of infringements of current advertising rules by various TV broadcasters: SAT. 1, Vox, Super RTL, MTV and n-tv. For example, music channel MTV had excessively lauded a new games console. In a Vox programme, a particular brand of gravy thickeners...