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EU: Green Paper Follow-Up

EU: Green Paper Follow-Up

The long-awaited follow-up to the European Commission’s Green Paper on Commercial Communications is about to emerge from interservice consultation within the Commission. The paper is likely to go before the Commission within the next two weeks. A draft obtained by the Advertising Information Group confirms that the Commission remains determined to implement the proposals of the Green Paper but appears to have introduced small changes in the priorities for action. Specifically, the Commission proposes:

  • The application of a transparent proportionality assessment methodology
  • Setting up a Commercial Communications Committee “to establish a transparent and efficient administrative co-operation between the [Commission] and the member states and a dialogue with interested third parties”. This latter will take the form of a “virtual committee” – a network of academic experts to provide the Commission with opinions on specific issues.
  • The establishment of a commercial communications’ contact point, information network and database.
  • The acceleration of complaint processing
  • The promotion of international co-operation
  • The clarification of electronic commerce issues
  • Bi-annual reports to the European Parliament

The Commission has also narrowed the terms of its remit to four key issues within commercial communications: the protection of minors; unfair competition; sponsorship; and misleading claims. This would appear, on the face of it, to remove the priority once ascribed to cross-border problems in sales promotion.

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