EACA Monthly Newsletter June 2003

Consumer Protection

A New Regulatory Framework Ahead on Authorisation, Labelling and Traceability
The overhaul of the current EU legislative system on authorisation, labelling and traceability of GMOs in food and feed is entering its final stages. Commissioner David Byrne told Consumer Voice that adoption of two new regulations would give clear rules to industry and protect consumer choice. The two regulations are now in the last stage of the co-decision process. The new system will provide for:

• a single approval process for GMOs
• traceability across production and distribution chains
• extensive mandatory labelling of GMOs in food and feed
• a labelling threshold for traces of unauthorised GM material

Fair Trade

Rough times for rogue traders: Commission proposes EU-wide ban on unfair commercial practices
The European Commission adopted recently a proposal for a Directive on unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices. Consumers' rights will be clearer and cross-border trade made simpler under the directive which establishes a single, common, general prohibition of unfair commercial practices distorting consumers' economic behaviour. This single set of common rules will replace the existing multiple volumes of national rules and court rulings on commercial practices. This will give consumers the same protection against sharp business practices and rogue traders whether they buy from the shop around the corner or from a website in another Member State. There are two main categories of unfairness: misleading and aggressive practices. Independent economic studies predict the Directive will increase consumer choice, stimulate competition and enlarge the horizons of small and medium sized businesses in Europe. The Commission's proposal follows several years of consultation with consumer groups, businesses and governments and is accompanied by an extended impact assessment. The proposal will now forwarded to the European Parliament and the Council for adoption through co-decision and could enter force-beginning 2005.

http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/03/8

Information Society

EU Moves Against Illegal and Harmful Content Online
To better equip parents and children with the tools and awareness they need for daily life in an Information Society, the EU Council has agreed with the European Parliament to accept the Commission's proposal for a two-year extension to the Safer Internet Action Plan. This is the EU's response to tackling the controversial issue of illegal and harmful content on the Internet. The Action plan supports a network of hotlines in Europe where illegal content can be reported. It encourages self-regulation, benchmarks content filtering and rating systems and supports a European network of safer Internet awareness centres. First calls for proposals under the Safer Internet Action Plan (?13.3 million.) will be launched in July 2003.

http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/03/7

CoE - Declaration on Freedom of Communication on the Internet
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted a Declaration on freedom of communication on the Internet. The main objective is to strike a balance between freedom of expression and information on the Internet and other rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, such as the protection of children against unsuitable online content. In response to the risk of over-regulation of Internet access, the text underlines the principle of freedom of expression and the free circulation of information on the Internet, in accordance with the requirements of Article 10 (freedom of expression and information) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

http://press.coe.int

OSCE - Amsterdam Recommendations on Freedom of the Media and the Internet
At the end of a two-day conference on Internet-related perils to freedom of expression, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Freimut Duve, issued a call for the OSCE to take up a strong position towards free flow of information on the Internet. The so-called Amsterdam Recommendations on Freedom of the Media and the Internet were issued at the conclusion of the conference held on 13 and 14 June in the City Hall of Amsterdam. The event brought together more than 25 experts from international organizations, media, academia, specialized non-governmental organizations from Europe and the U.S. as well as from the European Parliament, Council of! Europe, European Commission and the OSCE.

http://www.osce.org

OECD - 30 Nations Target Cross-Border Internet Scams
Thirty nations announced the first multinational pact to fight cross-border fraud, which has grown sharply with the spread of the Internet. The agreement among the industrial nations belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development was a year in the making and was spearheaded by the United States, which has the most victims of cross-border fraud. The 30 mostly European and North American member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development agreed to work together to fight cross-border fraud, beef up their own consumer-protection laws where necessary, and make it easier for consumers to recover damages.

http://www.usatoday.com

Sales Promotions

EU Stirs Up Internet Sales Tax Debate
On July 1, the 15-nation EU will begin collecting the VAT, or value-added tax, on sales of digital goods and other electronic transactions from U.S. and other non-EU companies. This means that American companies selling downloadable music, movies, games and software to customers in the EU might have to collect taxes that could boost the total cost of their products in Europe by as much as 25 percent. For companies like America Online and Internet auction giant eBay, it means additional costs for restructuring their European operations, as well as possible price increases for their customers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com

Television Without Frontiers

MEPs concerned with increasing media concentration
The Parliament's Culture Committee is seeking to establish EU-wide rules on ownership of television media. Improving on the recommendations laid down in the own-initiative report by Roy Perry (EPP-ED, UK), the Committee called on the Commission to monitor levels of media concentration in Europe and to draft an updated Green Paper on this issue by the beginning of 2004. Under the ongoing broad consultation process on the "Television Without Frontiers" Directive the MEPs also urged the Commission to support the establishment of a working group of national regulators and representatives of public and private broadcasting systems who would be in charge of swapping best practice on all forms of regulation, including co-regulation and self-regulation in the area of advertising and consumer protection. The MEPs want the basic principles of the Directive to be brought together with the e-commerce directive and the directive coordinating certain copyright rules applicable to broadcasting and retransmission into a single package.

http://www.euractiv.com

CoE - Options for the review of the TV Convention
Dr. Andreas Grünwald, consultant on the impact of convergence on the European Convention on Transfrontier Television, delivered recently a report covering the possible options to review the Convention. Suggestions on how to define new media services are made in the report, as is the question of whether such new services should fall under the scope of the Convention. The report also points to the need to reconsider or re-interpret many of the substantive provisions in the Convention in the light of market and technological developments. Comments can be addressed to the Media Division by 15 September 2003.

http://www.coe.int

Tobacco Advertising

EU among first to sign Convention on Tobacco Control
Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne and the Greek Council Presidency are among the first to sign in Geneva recently the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) on behalf of the European Union. As soon as 40 countries ratify the Convention, it becomes law in those countries and for all other countries that sign thereafter. The FCTC is a mixed Convention, requiring ratification both from the Community and EU Member States. The EU played a leading role in developing and promoting tobacco control policies within the Community and in the FCTC process. This global health treaty - the first ever created under the auspices of the WHO - includes international rules on smoking prevention and treatment, advertising and promotion, labelling, illicit trade, taxation and product regulation.

http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/03/8

EACA and Members News

EACA Closes the Entry stage for the Euro EFFIEs Awards
The entry stage of the Euro EFFIES was closed 30 June and the entries will enter the first round of the judging stage. A record number of entries (73) were received this year and over half of those requested the time extension of one month to complete their entries. As a result, the first round judging will not be finished until 15 August. Afterwards, all shortlisted agencies will be notified immediately and the creative materials to complement the data already supplied will be requested. The EACA EURO EFFIES 2003 are supported by EuroNews, WARC, The European Publishers' Council, Millward Brown, Proctor & Gamble, Hugo Boss, AdForum, UNEP, Nielsen Media Research & The Internationalist. The Awards Dinner will be in Brussels on 2 October 2003. Bookings can be made on www.euro-effie.com

http://www.euro-effie.com

EACA and WFA issue Guide to choosing and using a Media Auditor
New guidelines on choosing and using a media auditor were recently jointly published by the European Association of Commercial Communications Agencies and the World Federation of Advertisers. The new guidelines aim to help advertisers and agencies to work together in an informed manner, focusing on quality and performance in their relationships.

http://www.eaca.be/default.asp?s=News&sb=PressReleases&type=release&url=2003/20

EACA Board nominates new President
At its Board meeting in London on 6th June 2003, the board members of EACA nominated James Best, Chief People and Strategic Officer, Group Chairman of DDB UK and Chairman of DDB Middle East & Africa as President-elect of EACA (European Association of Communications Agencies).

http://www.eaca.be/default.asp?s=News&sb=PressReleases&type=release&url=2003/20

Children and Advertising

Portugal - NGO Calls for Ban on 'Junk Food' Ads
The Portuguese Association of Obese and Ex-Obese People (ADEXO) issued a statement in which they called on the government to ban misleading advertising and to restrict food advertising to children. ADEXO also names advertising as one of the causes of childhood obesity, stating that in the last two decades it has "bombarded children with high-calorie foods". ADEXO's position corresponds with the outcome of the second Congress of the Portuguese Association of Nutritionists (APN) on 29 - 30 May in Lisbon, in which APN announced a campaign to restrict the advertising of nutritionally poor food products.

http://www.aeforum.org

Self-Regulation

EASA Roadshow - Detailed legislation threatens effective advertising self-regulation
The piecemeal introduction of legislation is a slippery slope for the advertising industry: this was the key message of the European Advertising Standards Alliance's (EASA) Self-Regulation Roadshow hosted in Paris on 23 June by Jean-Pierre Teyssier, Chairman of the French Self-Regulatory Organisation, BVP, and Christopher Graham, Chairman of EASA. Welcoming the delegates, Teyssier emphasised the need for self-regulation to keep pace with the challenges coming from Europe. EASA's Self-Regulation Roadshow programme aims to bring all relevant stakeholders in self-regulation up to date with the EASA's initiatives. It is designed to strengthen the commitment among advertising industry members to the need for more rigorous adherence to codes, introduce new statistics highlighting progress achieved and the challenges still facing self-regulation at European and national level. The Roadshow programme, strongly supported by EACA, is part of a progressive promotional campaign by the newly restructured EASA. Next Self-regulation roadshow will be in Budapest on 25th September 2003. Details from...

communications@easa-alliance.com

Spain - Self -Regulation of Toy Advertising to Children
Recently in Madrid, Spain's advertising self-regulatory body and toy manufacturers association signed an agreement on toy advertising to children. A cooperation agreement was signed to set up a complementary mechanism to control and improve the implementation of AEFJ' s Code of Conduct on Advertising to Children. AEFJ' s Code of Conduct on Advertising to Children is the oldest advertising self-regulatory code in Spain, having been set up in 1993. The mechanism which implements the AEFJ Code will be now integrated in the self-regulatory system of AUTOCONTROL. All the existing advertising self-regulatory systems in Spain - i.e. the Code of the Spanish Federation of Spirits (FEBE), the Code of the National Association of Pharmaceutical Products' Advertising (ANEFP), the Code of the Spanish Association of Tobacco, the Code of the Association of Brewers and the Code of Farmaindustria - are now integrated into the general system of advertising self-regulation managed by AUTOCONTROL and controlled by its Commission

http://www.aap.es

Italy - Soon a Self-Regulation Code on the Internet
The Code of Self-regulation for the protection and the defence of minors from the dangers of the Internet will be presented soon. This was announced by the Communication Minister, Maurizio Gasparri, during a meeting organised by 'Telefono Azzuro' on "The child subject of rights and protagonist of choices". Thus, after the self-regulation code for the television, also the text of a code for the Internet will be completed.

http://www.agi.it

UK - IPA baffled by reports of allegedly imminent advertising ban on 'stereotyping'
The IPA is baffled by reports in the national press that the EU is 'in the final stages of preparation' of a law to ban sex discrimination and stereotyping in advertising and media as part of an ambitious piece of European Union social legislation proposed by the EU Social Affairs Commissioner, Anna Diamantopoulou. Given the implications for the advertising and marketing communications industry, if such a law were to be implemented, the IPA is puzzled that neither itself nor the Advertising Association (the federation of trade bodies representing the advertising and promotional marketing industries) have been consulted. The IPA will be working with the AA who lobby on behalf of the industry on this issue

http://www.ipa.co.uk

Pringle calls for DM industry to focus on delivering quality one to one customer communication
IPA Director General, Hamish Pringle, delivered recently a hard hitting keynote address with a wake up call to the DM industry to stop abusing interactive media and focus on quality one to one customer communication which enhances the brand relationship for customers, at the IDM/PM Symposium 2003 held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

http://www.ipa.co.uk

Doctors want ban on drink adverts
UK doctors' leaders called yesterday for an urgent ban on alcohol advertising to contain a binge-drinking epidemic among young people which is becoming a serious threat to their future health. In a challenge to the powerful drinks industry, the British Medical Association called for a halt to annual advertising worth £270m promoting sales of beer, wine and spirits. The guidelines prevented the showing of anything that would encourage the misuse of alcohol, drinking in inappropriate circumstances or drinking for the wrong reasons, he added.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/advertising/story/0,7492,990148,00.html

Events

5th Anniversary TBLI Conference
Brooklyn Bridge is celebrating its 5th anniversary of the TBLI Conference. The event will take place in Amsterdam, at the Beurs van Berlage, on the 6th and 7th of November 2003. What started in 1999 as a small event has grown into the world's largest conference on SRI (Socially Responsible Investing) and sustainable investment. The conference will have over 80 speakers presenting on subjects such as: Corporate Governance, Corporate Ratings, Environmental Credit Risk Assessment, SRI Performance, Shareholder Engagement, Sustainable Private Equity, Oecd Guidelines, and Climate Change. There will be Analyst Meetings on the Telecom Sector, IT Sector and Mining Sector. To see the program or register, please click http://www.tbli.org/index.php?referer_code=eaca For more information or to order the brochure, e-mail: gabrielle@tbli.org or call 31 (0)20 4286752.

http://www.tbli.org/index.php?referer_code=eaca