What does EU Law say about Banning Fossil Fuel Advertising?

Professor Christina Eckes and Yannick van den Berg have written a blogpost for the website European Law Blog, about how the Dutch Advertising Code Committee narrowly interprets the AVMSD, allowing for the advertising of environmentally harmful products and services. They argue that EU law not only permits a stricter interpretation of what qualifies as advertising for such products but actually requires it.

”As the first city worldwide, The Hague decided to adopt a legal ban on advertising for petrol cars, flights and cruise ships (see here and here). This decision underscores how advertising represents a new front in the struggle for the green transition. It is but one example of the general trend in Europe to challenge advertising for ‘climate killers’, in general, and greenwashing of harmful products and services, more specifically. Another example is the European Union’s recent ban on greenwashing, i.e., conveying a false impression or misleading information about the environmental impact of products/services, under the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD). With the legality of a ban on fossil fuel advertising already being discussed in an article by Clemens Kaupa and more recently on this blog by Ingo Venzke and Laurens Ankersmit.

This post argues that EU law not only allows for stricter interpretation of what constitutes advertising of products and services that are environmentally harmful but even demands such reading starting from a textual reading of Article 9(1)(c)(IV) of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD).”