Restriction on alcohol advertising in broadcasts of sport events

French laws prohibit advertising of alcohol on television under the pain of prosecution and administrative sanctions. Furthermore, under established practice, French television broadcasters might have been precluded from broadcasting sports events where alcohol was indirectly advertised on banners, billboards, T-shirts of the teams etc. That applied, in particular, to bilateral sports events addressed directly to the French public. In such cases, French broadcasters were required to refrain from broadcasting should the organisers provide advertising facilities concerning alcohol products.

The Commission enforced proceedings against France under Article 226 EC claiming infringement of the free movement of services, particularly of advertising and broadcasting services. The Court has, however, rejected charges against France.

The Court admitted that an infringement of free movement of services was involved. The Court noted that, for instance, the equipment owners were required to reject advertisements of alcohol products whenever a sports event was to be broadcasted in France. Furthermore, French broadcasters were precluded from broadcasting those games where alcohol advertisements were displayed. Organisers were in turn prevented from selling broadcasting rights to French operators whenever the transmission would contain indirect advertising of alcohol beverages.

However, the Court pointed out that restrictions to the free movement of services introduced by the Member States may be justified on the grounds of public health considerations. The Court found French provisions proportionate to that aim. The measures at issue were designed to limit the number of events available on television where the public might have viewed advertisements of alcohol and thus might have been encouraged to consume alcohol.

According to the Court, in line with well established case law, the fact that it is lawful to show advertisements of tobacco products during television broadcasts of sports events, is not relevant. Member States are free to define objectives of their public health policy and correspondingly choose implementing measures. Therefore, total prohibition in France of television alcohol advertisements may be deemed proportionate, regardless of measures applied by other Member States.