Wine Law

14 - the website of the event makes a clear distinction between the partners (sponsors) and the providers; - the visibility of the providers is limited to the companies’ names; - the visibility of the partners is more important than the visibility of the providers; - no advertising material is provided by the company for the event; and - the hypertext link on the event’s website leads to the institutional website of the company and contains a health warning message. Although the recent case law leaves some areas to explore as far as indirect advertising and sponsorship are concerned, there seems to be always more restriction on the media allowed. 3.3. The Restriction of the Media Allowed The case law clearly tends to make a narrow interpretation of the media allowed. 3.3.1. The packaging is regarded as a regulated media Up until recently, the packaging itself seemed to be excluded from the media that were concerned by the regulation of the advertising because of the wording of the law. Article L. 3323-4 of the Public Health Code stated that the packaging could be reproduced (on the advertising) as long as it complied with the law’s provision, and so it was not regarded as an advertising 49 . However, the High Court held otherwise, in 2017, in a case where Carlsberg was sponsoring a sports event in the UK 50 . It has also happened on several other occasions now. For instance, the use of the catch-line “ La 3ème mi- temps du RCT ” (“the third half of the rugby club of Toulon”) on a beer package was considered 49 E. Andrieu, Legipresse, °352, September 2017, pp. 452 et seq . 50 Cass. civ. 1 re , 5 July 2017, no. 16-14.978.