Two new public consultations of relevance for publishers

Two new public consultations launched by the European Commission last weeks are of high interest for the publishing sector.

The first one, announced on 12 May 2016, takes place in the context of the ‘Fitness Check’ of the EU consumer and marketing law. The purpose of the Fitness Check is to evaluate if the six directives under evaluation are still fit for purpose on the basis of the criteria of effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance and EU added value.

Of particular interest for the publishing sector, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (2005/29/EC) and the Misleading and Comparative Advertising Directive (2006/114/EC) are subject to the public consultation. The UCPD aims at protecting consumers against unfair commercial practices harming consumers’ economic interests. It therefore sets rules for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions and applies to all commercial practices before, during and after the transaction, including in the online environment, and to all products, including digital ones. The MCAD applies to business-to-business (B2B) transactions and provides a minimum legal standard of protection of businesses against misleading comparative advertising. Both Directives are particularly important for publishers' commercial, marketing and advertising practices. The public consultation will run until 9 September 2016.

The second public consultation covers Fundamental Rights on ‘Media Pluralism and Democracy’ and targets more directly the publishing sector. The freedom of the press, a diversity of titles and opinions represented in the society as well as in the media are absolutely essential to a well-functioning democracy. This public consultation aims at gathering views ahead of the second Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights, which will take place on 17-18 November 2016 in Brussels. Media pluralism can be threatened from many sides, and EMMA will notably advocate against further legislation that are burdensome for the press sector, endanger its financing and hinder the development of sustainable digital business models for the online press. This public consultation will run over 8 weeks and close on 14 July 2016.

EMMA will consult its members on both consultations over the coming weeks to gather their feedback on the situation of media pluralism in their respective     countries and on their assessment of the marketing and consumer rules in place. This will allow us to define a clear positioning and be able to contribute in a constructive and active way to the consultations.

For further information contact:

Amandine Hähnel 
European Affairs Manager, EMMA 

amandine.hahnel@magazinemedia.eu

+32 2 536 06 08