French Consumer Law is a comprehensive and comparative overview of French and EU law in this field, covering: advertising, unfair commercial practices, conditions for the validity of contracts, unfair terms, product conformity, latent defects, product safety.

French Consumer Law

There is no general definition of audiovisual advertising either in European or French law. Directive No 2010/13, like French Decree 92-280 only defines television advertising which represents the most widespread form of audiovisual advertising. 
Article 1(1)(i) of Directive No 2010/13 defines it as “any form of announcement broadcast whether in return for payment or for similar consideration or b …

Concept of audiovisual advertising

There is no general definition of audiovisual advertising either in European or French law. Directive No 2010/13, like French Decree 92-280 only defines television advertising which represents the most widespread form of audiovisual advertising. 

Article 1(1)(i) of Directive No 2010/13 defines it as “any form of announcement broadcast whether in return for payment or for similar consideration or broadcast for self-promotional purposes by a public or private undertaking or natural person in connection with a trade, business, craft or profession in order to promote the supply of goods or services, including immovable property, rights and obligations, in return for payment”. 

In a referral concerning the scope of that definition, the Court of Justice clarified that indirect television advertising resulting from the appearance on screen of hoardings visible during the retransmission of sporting events does not constitute television advertising .  The same applies to promotional messages broadcast by a television broadcaster for a radio station belonging to the same group of undertakings as that broadcaster, unless, on the one hand, the programs which are the subject of these promotional messages are “audiovisual media services” within the meaning of Article 1(1)(a) of the directive, which means that they are dissociable from the radio station's main activity, and if the broadcaster has “editorial responsibility” for them within the meaning of Article 1(1)(c) . On the other hand, the notion of television advertising applies to a TV broadcast during which viewers are offered the opportunity to participate in a prize game by means of immediately dialling a premium rate telephone number, and thus in return for payment, insofar as, on the basis of the purpose and content of that game and the circumstances in which the prizes to be won are presented, the game consists of an announcement which seeks to encourage viewers to buy the goods and services presented as prizes to be won .   

In France, Article 2 of Decree No 92-280 defines audiovisual advertising in similar terms as the directive as “any form of televised message broadcast in return for payment or other consideration, broadcast for the promotion of the supply of goods or services including those which are presented under their generic name, in the framework of a commercial, industrial, craft activity or liberal profession, or for the commercial promotion of a public or private undertaking”.

The combination of the two texts shows that audiovisual advertising is to be interpreted as necessarily within a business context, having an intention to promote and that such broadcasts imply the payment of consideration. Audiovisual advertising can be in various forms:

- commercial advertising or collective advertising: the ad may be broadcast to promote a brand or used, for example by the public authorities to promote general services or the causes in the public interest (collective advertising) the rules of which  are defined by a Prime Minister's Circular ;

- teleshopping, sponsorship, product placement: teleshopping , sponsorship (Directive No 2010/13, Article 10(1)) and product placement (Directive 2010/13, Article 1(m)), also constitute audiovisual advertising; teleshopping constitutes a direct offer broadcast to the public “with a view to the supply of goods or services, including immovable property, rights and obligations, in return for payment”; the broadcast of these offers is reserved for teleshopping programs and cannot be inserted in advertisements between programs; 

- self-promotion: a particular form of advertising in which the broadcaster promotes its own products, services, programs or channels (Directive No 2010/13, Article 25); the directive treats as programs “trailers consisting of extracts from programs” (recital 96), which it excludes from the maximum amounts of daily or hourly transmission time that may be allotted to advertising and teleshopping (recital 97); Article 16-1 of Decree No 92-280 defines self-promotion as “the service provided by cable or broadcast by satellite which allocates the entirety of its broadcast time to the promotion of the products, services or programs of a legal person”; self-promotional activities are subject not only to the provisions of Decree 92-280, with the exception of Articles 19 and 14, relating respectively to surreptitious advertising and to the obligation to place advertisement in advertising slots, but also, as a service only distributed by cable or broadcast by satellite, to the provisions applicable to the services distributed by networks not using the frequencies assigned by Arcom (Decree No 2021-1924 of 30 December 2021) ; Article 3 of that decree limits the scope of the activity of publishers of services devoted exclusively to self-promotion : “these services do not broadcast audiovisual or cinematographic works, news programs or political and general information programs. They may, however, broadcast documentaries and sports programs provided that the programming is exclusively devoted to self-promotion. In this case, it must not be possible to receive these services, directly or indirectly, in any other Member State of the European Union or signatory to the Agreement on the European Economic Area or party to the European Convention on Transfrontier Television”.

Case C-429/02 Bacardi France [2004] ECR p. I-6613, LawLex200900000742JBJ, under Directive No 89/552 since repealed and replaced by Directive No 2010-13 of 10 March 2010.

CJEU Case C-255/21 Reti Televisive Italiane SpA (RTI), Judgment of 30 January 2024, LawLex202400003758JBJ: in order for the programs of a radio station belonging to the same group of companies as the broadcaster concerned to be treated as that broadcaster's “own” programs, within the meaning of Article 23(2) of Directive No 2010/13, that broadcaster must assume editorial responsibility for the programs in question, within the meaning of Article 1(1)(c) of the directive, which cannot be based solely on the economic, organizational and legal links existing between a television broadcaster and a radio broadcaster within the same group of undertakings.

CJEU Case C-195/06 Kommunikationsbehörde Austria, Judgment of 18 October 2007, LawLex200900001051JBJ.

 Circular of 20 September 2010 the competitions of public sector audiovisual communication companies for campaigns of general interest in an appealing to public generosity, OJ of 22 September 2010, 17225, which repeals the Circular of 30 November 2005. The circular provides that “each year, a campaign is approved as a “important national cause”, which opens the right to the free dissemination of messages by the  public radio and television companies” bearing in mind that  “the organizations having benefited from this assistance must, in the same manner, i.e. radio or television, inform the public of the amount of the monies collected and the attribution of donations”. In addition, a limited number of campaigns of general interest “may be proposed for approval, within a limit of 5 per year”.

Article 21 of Decree 92-280 of 27 March 1992 defines teleshopping as “the broadcast of offers made directly to the public in view of the supply, in return for payment, of movable or immovable property, services, or rights and obligations relating thereto”. According to the decree, there are channels that are incidentally dedicated to teleshopping, those which are principally dedicated to it and those which are exclusively dedicated to it, with different obligations according to their category. In all cases, whatever the category of the channel, the origin of the products may be freely cited during the teleshopping programs (brand, manufacturer, distributor etc.).

Relating to the cinematographic and audiovisual contribution of publishers of television services distributed by networks not using frequencies assigned by Arcom (Autorité de Régulation de la Communication Audiovisuelle et Numérique) (OJ 304 of December 31, 2021) replacing Decree No 2010-416 of 27 April 2010, OJ of 29 April 2010, 7774.

The provisions of Titles II and III (relating to the contribution to the development of the production of cinematographic and audiovisual works) are not applicable to services devoted to self-promotion as defined in Article 16-1 of the aforementioned Decree of 27 March 1992.

French Consumer Law

85. Concept of audiovisual advertising

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Les notions juridiques connexes

85. Concept of audiovisual advertising

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise