The Advertising Law Needs Amending
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications has prepared an initiative for the amendment of the Advertising Law, which includes dozens of ideas for changing the advertising law. These ideas concern the definition of advertising and general principles, as well as advertising for alcohol, financial services, and other sectors. The Chamber sent its opinions on 15 ideas to the ministry.
In the letter sent to the ministry, the Chamber emphasized that amending the Advertising Law is necessary to increase the legal clarity of the existing advertising law terms, general principles, and specific restrictions, thereby simplifying compliance for businesses and making the work of supervisory authorities more effective. Amending the Advertising Law is also necessary to take into account new channels for advertising distribution. However, it is important to avoid over-regulation in making these changes.
Advertising Restrictions Must Be Channel-Neutral
Amending the Advertising Law is sensible, as new advertising channels have emerged over time, but the Advertising Law has not kept up with these changes. Increasingly, channels are used where advertising can be shown to everyone, regardless of time, such as various social media channels and streaming services.
Therefore, current advertising restrictions, which apply only to certain channels or times of day, need to be reviewed. The Chamber's first preference is to establish channel-neutral restrictions in the Advertising Law. This means that restrictions should be formulated through the objective, not by specific channels. For example, if the purpose of financial services advertising restrictions is to reduce emotion-driven loan decisions, then the restrictions should support achieving this goal, not stipulate where advertising can or cannot be shown.
Influencer Regulation Needs to Be Clarified
The Chamber supports the ministry's idea of clearly stating in the Advertising Law whether and under what conditions the law applies to influencers. Thus, the law must clearly state who is considered an influencer and what are the obligations and responsibilities of influencers in the advertising field.
Alcohol Advertising Restrictions Need to Be Specified
We support amending the Advertising Law so that alcohol advertising restrictions apply to specific alcoholic products as well as more generally to the alcohol food group. However, it is reasonable that non-alcoholic products should not be subject to alcohol advertising restrictions. Since the main purpose of non-alcoholic product advertising is to influence consumer attitudes and choices so that consumers prefer non-alcoholic products to alcoholic ones, imposing restrictions on non-alcoholic products would be counterproductive.
The Chamber also made several proposals to make alcohol advertising restrictions clearer, so that both companies and supervisory authorities can understand the restrictions in the same way. For example, the law should eliminate the requirement that alcohol advertising must be neutral, as this condition contradicts the nature of advertising. We also recommended not adding new requirements to the law that increase ambiguity. For example, if restrictions are imposed on advertising that acts as alcohol advertising, there is immediate uncertainty as to which advertisements are subject to alcohol advertising restrictions and which are not.
Self-Regulation Is Good, But It Does Not Replace Clear Laws and State Supervision
The current Advertising Law contains many unclear provisions, several provisions do not consider market changes, there is a lack of supervisory resources, and supervision is ineffective. As one possible solution to these problems, the ministry has proposed self-regulation by market participants.
Under this solution, only general principles, certain product and goods advertising bans, and provisions mandatory under EU directives would remain in the Advertising Law. The Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority would supervise these requirements. Meanwhile, market participants would conduct self-regulation, which is significantly more detailed than the law, and ensure that companies joining self-regulation comply with it.
The Chamber is positively inclined towards creating cross-sector self-regulation in the advertising field. However, it should not be expected that self-regulation alone will solve all the bottlenecks in the Advertising Law and automatically make supervision effective. Self-regulation can specify the law and establish stricter requirements if necessary, but it is still necessary for the Advertising Law to be as clear as possible and for effective state supervision to function.
The Bill Will Be Completed by the End of 2024
he Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications will analyze the thoughts of various stakeholders, conduct additional studies, and then prepare the draft bill for amending the Advertising Law. According to the current schedule, the draft bill is expected to be completed by the end of 2024, with the amendments planned to come into force at the end of 2025.