Wine Law

WINE PROMOTION 287 in cinemas; 3. no sponsorship of cultural or sport events is permitted; 4. advertising is permitted only in the press for adults, on billboards, on radio channels (under precise conditions), at special events or places such as wine fairs, wine museums. When advertising is permitted, its content is controlled: i. messages and images should refer only to the qualities of the products such as degree, origin, composition, means of production, patterns of consumption; ii. a health message must be included on each advertisement to the effect that “ l’abus d’alcool est dangereux pour la santé ” : alcohol abuse is dangerous for health”. In force, such law clearly imposes limits to alcohol advertisement, especially in sports events. In July 2004, the European Court of Justice rendered a judgment in the case apply by the Commission of the European Communities, supported by the United Kingdom, against French Republic 36 . Applicants complain that, by broadcasting, in France, French television channels of sports events taking place in other Member States, conditional on the prior removal of advertising for alcoholic beverages, the French Republic has failed to fulfil its obligations under article 59 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, article 49 EC). The applicants have accused the French Republic of restrictions in broadcasting sports events taking place in other Member States. The case was presented as follows: “By making television broadcasting in a Member State by French television channels of sporting events taking place in other Member States conditional on the prior removal of advertising for alcoholic beverages, the Member State concerned has not failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 59 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 49 EC). It is true that such rules on television advertising constitute a restriction on freedom to provide services within the meaning of Article 59 of the Treaty. They entail a restriction on freedom to provide advertising services in so far as the owners of the advertising hoardings must refuse, as a preventive measure, any advertising for alcoholic beverages if the sporting event is likely to be retransmitted in the Member State concerned. They also impede the provision of broadcasting services for television programmes, since broadcasters in that Member State must refuse all retransmission of sporting events in which hoardings bearing advertising for alcoholic beverages marketed in that State may be visible, and the organisers of sporting 36 Case C-262/02 - Commission of the European Communities v French Republic, available i n https://eur- lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A62002CJ0262, accessed on 30 April 2020.