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On 24 September 2024, signatories of the Code of Practice on Disinformation published reports detailing their actions to combat the spread of disinformation online, with a particular focus on the European Parliament elections held in June 2024. The Code of Practice on Disinformation was first adopted in 2018 by various industry players, including online platforms, as a self-regulatory standard to tackle online disinformation in the EU; the Code was revised in 2022, and currently has 34 signatories (IRIS 2021-6/4). The Code of Practice contains 44 commitments and 128 specific measures, covering...

In a recent decision of the Национална агенция за приходите (the National Revenue Agency – NRA), the regulatory body provided clarifications on the interpretation of the latest amendments to the Bulgarian Закона за хазарта (Gambling Act) concerning the ban of gambling advertising (see IRIS 2024-6:1/18). Historically, the origins of these legislative changes date back to August 2022, when a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Съвет за електронни медии (Council for Electronic Media – CEM) and the NRA. This collaboration stemmed from growing concerns over aggressive gambling...

On 2 August 2024, the Amsterdam District Court (Rechtbank Amsterdam) delivered a significant judgment on YouTube’s suspension of an online news outlet from YouTube’s monetisation programme, over the channel’s “misleading content”, including on the climate crisis. Notably, the Court rejected the news outlet’s claim that there had been a violation of its right to freedom of expression, and said YouTube had the freedom to create an “advertising-friendly environment”, where certain channels are deemed “unsuitable for advertising” over misleading...

In a recently published decision of 22 April 2024 (Case No. 32 K 1/23), the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin (Berlin Administrative Court – VG Berlin) upheld a complaint concerning a breach of the ban on regional advertising lodged by a Landesmedienanstalt (state media authority) against a national television broadcaster. It held that the advertising ban, enshrined in the German Medienstaatsvertrag (state media treaty – MStV), was not unconstitutional. However, a different court had previously found that the ban, which was also the subject of a 2021 European Court of Justice ruling in the...

The Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM), by means of Resolution No. 94/24/CSP dated 24 July 2024, published on 5 August 2024, fined the Italian broadcasting company RAI EUR 206 580.00, equivalent to twenty times the minimum fine, for an incident involving the shoes worn by John Travolta during the 74th edition of the Sanremo 2024 Italian Song Festival. The Authority deemed it a case of covert advertising, concluding that the current regulations on the proper disclosure of advertising messages had not been adhered to. RAI argued that it had a specific contract with the renowned actor prohibiting...