MEPs this week approved plans to include “comparative advertising” in the existing Union directive on misleading advertising

Date: 24/10/1996

But they introduced a number of key amendments to the parliamentary report which they now want EU governments to accept. The Parliament insisted that any reference in advertisements to research comparing different brands must first have the express permission of the body which carried out the test. Another amendment stipulated that goods or services should not be presented as replicas of other goods which are already under patent. MEPs called for a maximum degree of subsidiarity to apply to complaints procedures, and agreed that a Europe-wide body should only be called upon to coordinate controls and to settle cross-border disputes.