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Articles in this category:  24.10.2007 / EU Parliament supports restrictive requirements for car advertising
click to close Health warnings on cigarette packs should serve as an example for environmental information in car advertising: 20% of the space of the ad should be devoted to environmental messages, such as CO2 emissions. On Wednesday, 24 October 2007 the EU Parliament adopted the Chris Davies report on the Community Strategy to reduce CO2 emission from passenger cars and light-commercial vehicles.
By adopting the advertising and labelling part of this report the Parliament supports the idea that car ads should devote a fixed amount of space (20%) to public policy messages.
This report contains six paragraphs on advertising and labelling requirements for car advertising, that would infringe on the freedom of commercial communication, as they suggest how the car industry has to inform the consumer about environmental aspects of the advertised car. Today these unacceptable paragraphs were adopted as proposed by the rapporteur, MEP Chris Davies (ALDE / UK).
While the “own-initiative” report is not legally binding, the EU Environment Commissioner, Mr. Dimas (Greece), stated during the Parliament’s debate on this report that the EU Commission will follow the Parliament’s proposal for advertising and labelling and incorporate it in the Commission’s legislative proposal on the subject.
The EU Commission will come up early next year (2008) with its proposal for a revised Labelling Directive. This Directive, as it stands, encourages member states to ensure that car advertising provides information on CO2 emissions and fuel consumption. So far it does not give any advice on the format of how this information has to be integrated in an ad. Following the Parliament’s decision today, this might change.
By introducing statutory advertising requirements, as proposed in the Chris Davies report, the fundamental right of freedom of expression is infringed. The producer of legally offered products in the EU market should be able to pronounce publicly about its products without any other restrictions other than those enshrined in existing national and European law, supported by self-regulatory codes and possible sector-specific codes, currently being considered by the car industry for car advertising.
FAEP will continue lobbying the EU Commission to ensure that the suggestions of this report will not find its way to any legislative proposal.
For more information please contact: max.abendroth@faep.org
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