According to a European Court of Justice ruling on Wednesday 3 February (Case C-555/19), a ban on the broadcasting of advertising at regional level only during German television programmes broadcast nationally, could be contrary to European Union law.
This total ban may, on the one hand, go beyond what is necessary to preserve the pluralistic nature of the supply of television programmes by reserving revenue from regional television advertising for regional and local channels and, on the other hand, create an unacceptable inequality between national television broadcasters and providers of advertising services on the Internet.
In this case, the Stuttgart Regional Court must now rule.
In 2018, Fussl Modestraße Mayr GmbH, a company incorporated under Austrian law, concluded a contract with SevenOne Media GmbH, the marketing company of the German television station ProSiebenSat.1. This contract concerned the broadcasting, solely in the Bavarian State, of advertising as part of the programmes on the national channel ProSieben. However, SevenOne Media refused to perform this contract. Since 2016, a State Treaty concluded by the Länder has prohibited television broadcasters from inserting, in their national broadcasts, television advertisements whose broadcasting is limited to a regional level.
As regards the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, the Court notes that Article 4 (more detailed or stricter rules) does not apply in this case.
As regards the conformity of the prohibition at issue with the freedom to provide services guaranteed by Article 56 TFEU, the Court finds that such a prohibition entails a restriction on that fundamental freedom to the detriment of both the providers of advertising services and the recipients of those services.
Finally, the Court notes that the prohibition at issue could be vitiated by an inconsistency, since it applies only to advertising services provided by television broadcasters and not to advertising services, particularly linear advertising services, provided on the Internet.
Read the judgment: http://bit.ly/2MKNLJL (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)