Legal action on toy advert ban delayed

Date: 28/03/1996

GREECE is unlikely to face court action in the near future over its allegedly illegal ban on television advertisements for toys.

The threat has receded following a decision by DGXV (the Directorate-General responsible for the single market) not to put the proposed measure to a Commission vote until a majority of members has informally agreed to back it.

So far, Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti has failed to muster the support of fellow Commissioners needed to take legal action against Athens, but Cabinet members remain confident he will sway waverers in the coming months.

Representatives of European toy manufacturers, who have been lobbying intensively to have Greece brought to heel for what they argue is a breach of single market rules, say that they would rather delay the vote than risk having court action ruled out.

Chefs de Cabinet are due to discuss possible legal action at a quarterly meeting dealing with infringement cases today (28 March), but are unlikely to decide to go ahead with it.

Prompted by complaints from toy-makers and advertisers, the Commission agreed to start legal proceedings before Christmas, but failed to keep its promise at the last minute.

According to international firms, the ban on toy adverts before 10pm serves only to protect domestic manufacturers from outside competition. Before its introduction in 1994, toy-makers in Greece, unable to afford increasingly-expensive television advertisements, were suffering market losses at the hands of international rivals. Since the ban's introduction, their fortunes have been reversed. Members of the Greek toy association went so far as to trumpet the success of the measure, boasting a surge in sales of their products as a direct result of the ban.

Greece is not the only member state to have imposed such a ban. Sweden, Belgium and Ireland have similar laws restricting adverts broadcast within their territories and Sweden has been campaigning to bolster its prohibition, which has recently come under threat from UK-based channel TV3.

According to advertising rules laid down in the Television Without Frontiers Directive, broadcasters must obey rules in the country from which, and not to which, they broadcast. This allows stations such as TV3 to circumvent restrictive laws in one EU country by, quite simply, broadcasting from another.

EU culture ministers, voting on proposed changes to the directive, decided last year to maintain the country of origin principle. MEPs took a contrary view when they voted on the directive last month, deciding instead to grant destination countries the right to block advertisements which break national law.