Jim Murray, director of the consumer group BEUC, has criticised the EC’s e-commerce proposals. Mr Murray said that consumers should not have to deal with the individual laws of the 15 member states. He added that it was absurd to treat on-line consumers in the same way as consumers who go to the supplier’s country… Continue reading EU: BEUC criticises e-commerce proposals
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is to launch a campaign to protect terrestrial television coverage of the World Cup football finals. FIFA, the world football governing body, has declared that the 2002 finals in Japan and South Korea should appear on terrestrial television, but the EBU fears that in many countries some of the games… Continue reading EU: Plans for World Cup 2002
EU member states look set to derail the European Commission’s proposals for rules to govern the sale of financial services via telephone, direct mail or the Internet. The proposed law, which would give consumers throughout the EU 14 days to withdraw from contracts without any penalty, limit unsolicited sales and establish redress procedures for disputes… Continue reading EU: Distance Selling plan faces opposition
ITV has today been ordered to drop its current advertisements for digital terrestrial television (DTT) after the ITC found them to be denigratory to the satellite platform run by Sky Digital.Earlier in the week the watchdog upheld a number of complaints about these ads made by BSkyB and ITV was forced to change the format… Continue reading ITV Told To Remove Digital Ads By ITC
Representatives of the European audio-visual industry led by European Commissioner Marcelino Oreja have published a report proposing a number of initiatives for the revitalisation of EU audio-visual policy. Convened last year by Mr Oreja, the group is charged with developing recommendations for the orientation of audio-visual policy in the digital age, with a view to… Continue reading EU: Call to revitalise AV policy
The European Directive on the protection of private data entered into force on 25 October. The directive (95/46/EC) establishes a high-level of protection for the treatment of personal data in the EU and has led to disputes with the United States. Implementation of the directive is not yet guaranteed throughout the EU however. Several MS… Continue reading EU: Data Protection Directive
LLP, the publisher of Lloyd’s List, the daily insurance newspaper, and IBC, the business information group, have announced a £315 million merger. The merged company will be called Informa. Shares in both companies rose yesterday on the back of the news: LLP closed up 39p at 272˝p and IBC was up by 72˝p to 437˝p.… Continue reading Newsline Brief
At a cabinet meeting last week, the decision was taken to reduce advertising time on the French state-run TV channels. From 2000, advertising slots will be cut by over 50%, from twelve to five minutes per hour on France 2 and France 3. The move has been supported by Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who claims… Continue reading FR: Reduction of TV advertising
The Belgian Prime Minister is considering relaxing a proposed law which would ban all tobacco advertising and sponsorship in Belgium as from 1 January 1999. He is currently having discussions with the Flemish Socialist Party on the subject.
The consultation process being conducted by the ITC into ITV’s plans to re-organise its peak time schedule closed on 29 October. This has been a high profile debate, centring around the proposal to move “News at Ten”, with the ITC receiving more than 1800 submissions. The AA and ISBA each made submissions defending ITV’s right… Continue reading UK: ITV’s peak time schedule
