THE MEDIA MARKET JOINTLY SUPPORTS AN AMENDMENT TO THE MEDICINES ACT TO REGULATE ADVERTISING

Media operators and advertising agencies associated in professional associations jointly support the amendment to the Medicines Act, which will be voted on Friday in the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies and which proposes to repeal the latest amendment to the law on advertising regulation. In fact, last year, an amendment to the Medicines Act amended the Advertising Regulation Act by extending responsibility for the compliance of the content of advertising for selected types of products - human medicines, food supplements and food for special and infant nutrition - with the law to its mere disseminators. Until then, only those actually involved in the advertising of such products were responsible for the compliance with the law, as is the case for other types of products. The amendment seeks to return to the original form of the law on advertising regulation.

The problematic amendment, which introduced the joint and several liability of the advertiser for the compliance of the content of advertising for medicinal products for human use, food supplements, food for special nutritional uses and infant formulae with the law, has been in force since April 2017. It has not led to any increase in the level of consumer protection, it has just proved to be easily exploitable for the competition of the producers of the products concerned. Already last spring, the entire media sector warned that extending liability to the disseminators of advertising cannot lead to greater consumer protection. Advertisers do not have the professional qualifications or the legal tools to be able to gather the necessary evidence and make an informed assessment of whether or not the advertised product, for example, actually boosts immunity.

"Media operators understand that the aim of the amendment was to provide greater consumer protection, but shifting responsibility to the advertiser is not the right way to go. Consumer protection can only be increased by effective enforcement of legal obligations on advertisers. We hope that the legislators will understand this fact and support the amendment that returns the wording of the Advertising Regulation Act to its original form and reject the current amendment as unconceptual and unsystematic,"

comments Ján Simkanič, Chairman of the Association for Internet Development (SPIR).

Sdružení pro internetový rozvoj (SPIR)
Asociace komerčních televizí (AKTV)
Asociace televizních organizací (ATO)
Unie vydavatelů (UV)
Asociace provozovatelů soukromého vysílání (APSV)
Asociace komunikačních agentur (AKA)
Asociace českých reklamních agentur a marketingové komunikace (AČRA MK)