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After three years of preparation and any amount of being passed back and forth in Parliament, the Act reforming the audiovisual sector, aimed in particular at strengthening the public sector and opening the way for the development of terrestrially-broadcast digital television in France, was adopted on 29 June. Apart from a few minor points, most of the text was declared to be in compliance with the Constitution by the Constitutional Council on 27 July. Firstly, the Act restructures public-sector audiovisual communication, making considerable amendments to the Act of 30 September 1986. The central...

The Hessen state authority for commercial broadcasting (LPR Hessen), which is responsible for monitoring the programmes of private broadcaster RTL-2, has complained that an episode of the TV show Big Brother contained illegal surreptitious advertising. On 16 May 2000, an episode of the controversial TV programme Big Brother, in which several volunteers are confined in a building cut off from the outside world and monitored round the clock by cameras and microphones (see IRIS 2000-3: 7), showed these people building a model railway. The manufacturer's name, which appeared in unusually large characters...

Since 1991 the Flemish Broadcasting legislation, with some modifications, stipulates a ban on advertising immediately before and after children's programmes. In a time period of 5 minutes before and after programmes targetting children under 12, no advertising or sponsorship messages are allowed. For many years the commercial broadcasting organisation VTM and its second channel Kanaal 2 have been opposed to this provision of the Broadcasting Decree and have sought the abrogation of the 5-minute rule. A decree proposed in the Flemish Parliament some months ago, however, went in the opposite direction...

On 15 June 2000, Advocate General Fennelly delivered his Opinion on joined cases C-376/98 (Germany v. European Parliament and Council) and C-74/99 (The Queen v. Secretary of State for Health and Others ex parte: Imperial Tobacco Ltd. and Others). Both cases concern the validity of E.P. and Council Directive 98/43/EC, of 6 July 1998, on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to the advertising and sponsorship of tobacco products (OJ 1998 L 213, p. 9; hereinafter: the "Directive"). In the first case the applicant is the German State;...

On 9 June 2000 the Bundestag (Federal Parliament) amended parts of the Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb (Unfair Competition Act - UWG) in order to standardise what is known as comparative advertising. Previously such advertising was not expressly regulated in Germany. In most cases, the courts used to classify comparative advertising as anti-competitive. The amendment transposes European Parliament and Council Directive 97/55/EC of 6 October 1997 into German law. The Directive itself contains individual conditions that must be fulfilled if comparative advertising is to be considered legal....