Marketing and Advertising Law in a Process of Harmonisation

The law on marketing and advertising has undergone profound changes based on the EU directives on unfair commercial practices and misleading and comparative advertising. The legislation partially requires full harmonisation and contains a comprehensive blacklist of prohibited practices. However, in other areas, only minimum harmonisation is required. A comprehensive case law from the CJEU has emerged, but still many issues remain open, unclear and debated. The EU Commission has an active interest in the field and has published numerous reports on the question. In addition it has developed revised, comprehensive guidelines on marketing business to consumer (B2C), which are fully discussed here. Further Commission initiatives in the area on business to business (B2B) marketing are also in the making, underlining the importance of this new collection.

1. Introduction: Marketing and Advertising Law in a Process of Harmonisation Ulf Bernitz and Caroline Heide-Jorgensen 2. Commercial Speech and its Limits-Fundamental Rights and Comparative Constitutional Aspects Caroline Heide-Jorgensen 3. Ethics, Taste and Decency Considerations in Advertising Frauke Henning-Bodewig 4. The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive: Full Harmonisation, Scope and Key Notions Jules Stuyck 5. Interpretation and Assessment under the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive-the ICC Code for Advertising and Marketing and the Commission's Staff Working Document Jan Trzaskowski 6. The `Fitness Check' of the MCAD and UCPD Bert Keirsbilck 7. The Impact of the UCP Directive on National Fair Trading Law and Institutions: Gradual Convergence or Deeper Fragmentation? Antonina Bakardjieva Engelbrekt 8. B2B and B2C Marketing Practices -the Case for an Integrated Approach Palle Bo Madsen 9. Applying the UCP Directive in Practice: The Norwegian Experience Tore Lunde 10. Enforcing Unfair Competition Law Cross Border: Cooperation Mechanisms and Consumer Redress-Does the System Work? Astrid Stadler 11. Unfair Competition Law: How Can It Work as an Important Complement to Intellectual Property Protection. Are There Missing Links? Per Jonas Nordell 12. The Road Ahead-Present Status and Need for Reform Ulf Bernitz