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

Some programs are subject to a stricter rules on advertising breaks:

1)  Cinematographic works and films made for television.

Films made for television (excluding series, soap operas and documentaries) and cinematographic works, under Article 20(2) of Directive No 2010/13, may be interrupted once for each scheduled period of at least thirty minutes by television advertising and/or teleshopping.

Article 73 of Law No 86-1067 provides that “the broadcast by a television service of a cinematographic  or audiovisual work cannot be subject to more than two advertising breaks. Furthermore, cinematographic works, audiovisual works that are neither series nor soap operas nor documentaries can only be subject to as many interruptions as the scheduled thirty-minute periods they contain. Advertising breaks may only contain advertising messages to the exclusion of any other document, data or message of any nature, in particular trailers, self-promotion spots”. Under Article 15, IV, of Decree No 92-280, these interruptions cannot be longer than six minutes.

Case law strictly interprets the concepts of films made for television and cinematographic works. According to the Council of State, a work that has not been shown in cinemas in France, but only in its country of origin, is a cinematographic work .The Court of Justice stated that the regime of advertising interruptions of audiovisual works applies to television films regardless of whether they are produced from the outset for television and provide, from their conception, for breaks for the insertion of commercials . A film broadcast as part of a cycle on a given theme cannot be considered as a series, and be subject to more frequent commercial breaks, as the qualification of series requires connections between films related to their content, such as the development of the same story or reappearance of one or more characters . 

The concept of commercial break is strictly defined. Thus, within the meaning of Article 73 of the Law of 30 September 1986, the insertion within an audiovisual work of a scrolling banner to promote a future program of the same channel , commercials broadcast during the break and between two parts of a cinematographic work which, during the showing of the film in cinemas corresponds to the interval , or the broadcast, before that of the credits, of a duplex link with the set of the next program, to inform the viewer of its content and encourage him not to leave the channel, do not constitute an advertising break. Similarly, a trailer promoting the television channel should not be equated with a commercial . 

2)  Television news, children's programs and religious programs.

Under Article 20, paragraph 2, of Directive No 2010/13, television news programs may be interrupted only once for each scheduled period of at least thirty minutes. The same limit applies to children's programs provided that the duration of the program is greater than thirty minutes. Finally, the broadcast of religious services cannot give rise to any interruption.

Under Article 15, III, of Decree No 92-280, news programs, children's programs, current affairs programs and religious programs cannot be interrupted, if their duration is less than thirty minutes. Article 16 provides that no advertising may be inserted in any broadcast of a religious service. Religious services are defined as retransmissions of religious ceremonies.

3)  Cinematographic works disseminated in the framework of cine-club programs, by France Télévisions, by cinema television services or by pay-per-view programs, and some specific programs.

Although Directive No 2010/13 aims to preserve the artistic value of cinema and television films and the interest of consumers to have quality programs, it does not provide any special provisions for the cine-club. However, French law prohibits advertising subtitling of cinematographic works, and any advertising break in cinematographic works broadcast within the framework of cine-club programs (Law No 86-1067, Art. 73). Furthermore, Article 73, paragraph 3, of Law No 86-1067 prohibits commercial breaks during the broadcast of a cinematographic work by France Télévisions and by cinema television services . Article 15-1 of Decree No 92-280 specifies that cinema services, pay-per-view services , programs subject to specific conditions of access and programs whose unencrypted broadcast has been exceptionally authorized by Arcom (previously the CSA), are totally deprived of the possibility to broadcast commercials. However, for cinema services distributed by cable or broadcast by satellite or terrestrially in digital mode, programs that are subject to specific conditions of access may include advertisements for the film industry.

 Decree No 90-66, Art. 2: “Cinematographic works are: 1. Works that have obtained a broadcast license within the meaning of Article 19 of the aforementioned Film Industry Code, with the exception of documentary films that were first broadcast on television in France; 2. Foreign works that have not obtained this license but which have been commercially exploited in their country of origin”.

 Cons. d'Ét., 26 July 1991, LawLex200300001829JBJ.

 Case C-245/01 RTL Television GmbH, Judgment of 23 October 2003, LawLex200900000918JBJ.

 Cons. d'Ét., 16 March 2005, LawLex201200001144JBJ.

 Cons. d'Ét., 28 February 1997, LawLex200300001833JBJ.

 Cons. d'Ét., 20 March 1991, LawLex200300003789JBJ.

 Decree No 90-66, Art. 6-2: “A cinema service is a television service whose main purpose is the programming of cinematographic works and programs devoted to cinema and its history.”

 Decree No 90-66, Art. 6-6: A pay-per-view service is a television service involving payment from users directly related either to the duration of use of the service, or to the program."

93. Commercial breaks