Date Posted: 11/7/2012 8:44:52 AM
Posted By: sashoo Membership Level: Silver Total Points: 382
European member states have the right to make their own legislation governing business practice. This can mean inconsistencies across Europe. For example, national laws governing advertising across Europe mean that what is acceptable in one country is banned in another. For example, toys cannot be advertised in Greece, tobacco advertising is illegal in Scandinavia and Italy, alcohol advertising is banned on television in France and at sports grounds, and in Germany any advertisement believed to be in bad taste can be prohibited. This patchwork of national advertising regulations means that companies attempting to create a brand image across Europe often need to make substantial changes to advertising strategy on a national basis.Supplementing the work of the European Commission are national bodies set up to investigate anti-competitive practices. For example, the Competition Commission in the UK, the Bundeskartellant in Germany and the Competition Council in France provide national protection against anti-competitive behavior. These investigations can lead to heavy fines. For example, the financial Services Authority, which oversees the UK financial services industry, fined Shell millions of pounds under national market abuse provision relating to the overstating of oil reserves.Self-regulation also occurs at national level, with industries drawing up codes of practice to protect consumer interests, sometimes as a result of political pressure. Examples of such regulatory bodies in the advertising industry are the Deutscher Werbat (Germany), Stichting Reclame Code (Netherlands), Marknads Etiska Radet (Sweden) and the Advertising Standards Authority (UK). The Code of Advertising Standards and Practice drawn up by the Advertising Standards Authority is designed to keep advertising ‘legal, decent, honest and truthful’. Similarly, the marketing research industries in many European countries have drawn up codes of practice to protect people from unethical activities such as using marketing research as a pretext for selling.Marketing management must be aware of the constraints on its activities made by the political and legal environment. Such staff must assess the extent to which they feel the need to influence political decisions that may affect their operations, and the degree to which industry practice needs to be self-regulated in order to maintain high standards of customer satisfaction and service. Above all, companies need to ensure that their activities are in accord with EU and national laws and codes of practice.
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