EU: FEDMA Calls For Single Market

The Federation of European Direct Marketing Associations (FEDMA) has published the first survey into sales promotion legislation across the EU. It reports that “sales promotion regulations vary so widely in the EU that they constitute a serious distortion to intra-EU trade and to the smooth functioning of sales and marketing in the single market. If this is not rectified soon, European companies will find themselves at an ever more serious disadvantage vis-a-vis their non-European competitors and the European consumer will suffer. This will become especially apparent in the area of electronic commerce.” German rules on sales promotions come in for the strongest criticism by FEDMA, as it has particularly restrictive sales promotion rules. The FEDMA report notes several recent controversial cases, including the ban under German law of the establishment of a record mail order business by Polygram (see NOTICES 31). Carel Rog, FEDMA’s chairman, said: “Some sales promotion rules and regulations are extremely restrictive – there are even bans on certain types of sales promotion in some countries – while others are relatively loose, or apply different rules for different types of promotion in the same country. There is no consistency and in many cases, laws remain in place to protect entrenched competitors. This neither benefits the consumer, nor business in general.” FEDMA and the European Magazine Publishers Federation (FAEP), which co-authored the study, call upon the EU to embrace the view that what is legal in the EU country of origin must also be accepted by other MS, and otherwise to keep legislation to a minimum, as self-regulation is already a successful means of controlling the industry.