12/12/2007

The European Commission sent Italy on 11 December a letter of formal notice for violating EU advertising rules under the Television without Frontiers Directive.

"Broadcasters need advertising and advertisers need broadcasters, but we must also have effective consumer protection," said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media. According to the Commission, Italy has not taken the necessary steps to implement correctly and ensure effective compliance with the rules of the EU's Television without Frontiers Directive. Independent monitoring revealed that Italian broadcasters do not comply with the Directive's quantitative advertising rules, in particular the hourly 12 minute limit for advertising, the rule on 20 minute minimum intervals between advertising breaks and the rule on inserting advertising in films.

See the press release