EU: Greek toy case protest

TIE – the body representing the major toy industries across Europe – has complained to the European Ombudsman about what it says “appears to be a serious maladministration by the European Commission” in its failure to take action over the banning by Greece in October 1994 of the advertising of toys on Greek TV between the hours of 7am and 10pm. In a letter signed by Graham Benison, president of TIE, the Ombudsman is asked to investigate the Commission’s handling of the original complaint over the ban, which prima facie infringes the EU’s single market legislation and yet which has been without proper and full consideration by the Commission for almost 4 years. The letter accuses the Commission of having “failed administratively by its own standards.”