UK: AA Holds Meeting

The Advertising Association hosted a meeting on 10 February on the issue of car advertising. Attended by representatives of the advertising industry and officials of the UK Department of Transport and of the European Commission, it examined UK Presidency proposals for pan-EU guidelines on car advertising. The meeting was told by the EC delegates that the UK regulatory system was considered exemplary, and that the EC was, at the invitation of the UK Presidency, considering ways in which this system might be used in the rest of the EU. The AA was invited to put forward a formal paper to the EC, representing the views of the UK advertising industry; it will be doing this within the next few weeks. Among the points to be put in the paper are likely to be the following:

1. Self-regulatory codes should not be imposed by governments. 2. There is no mechanism in place for monitoring a European code, and the national self-regulatory structures currently in place vary substantially from each other in form, content and enforcement. 3. While the code as it stands is broadly acceptable in the UK (apart from the prohibition of claims about power and performance), the provisions may be unacceptable or inappropriate in other MS. Further details can be obtained from Sara Price at the AA, telephone 00 44 171 828 2771.