SECTION A OVERVIEW

EU/ international news

Green Claims Directive news Politico 

June 23, 2025. Big wobble as Italy pulls 

Fears EU caves to US on tech rules 

Politico June 23, 2025

X Bans Hashtags in Promoted Posts

Social Media Today June 26, 2025

EU/ international news

Omnibus - CSRD/CSDDD developments 

Hogan Lovells May 28, 2025

EASA Policy Newsletter May 2025 Issues AVMSD, Influencers, AI transparency, Minors protection, consumer protection inc green claims and DFA, internal market

Rada Reklamy Influencer code translation 

And new Beer code translation 

European issues

Hague ban upheld CMS Apr 29, 2025

EU council approves 'stop-the-clock'

Macfarlane's April 24, 2025

EU fines Apple €500M, Meta €200M 

Politico April 22, 2025

EU consumer law plans Lewis Silkin 
Apr 9, 2025. Commissioner report here

GDPR for red tape bonfire within ‘weeks’

Politico April 3, 2025

Omnibus simplification package update

Hogan Lovells April 1, 2025

Alcohol code amended/ developed primarily re alcohol alternatives 

https://radareklamy.pl/nowa-samoregulacja-branzy-piwowarskiej/

Announcement January 29, 2025. See August 2024

European/ international issues

Von der Leyen bonfire of EU’s environmental red tape

Politico Europe. January 29, 2025

Trump orders US to leave WHO. BBC Jan 21, 2025

Zuckerberg urges Trump to stop EU fining US tech

Politico January 11, 2025

EU to re-open, merge CSRD, CS3D & Taxonomy 

REP Nov 20, 2024. Travers Smith here Jan 30, 2025

EC Guidelines on Prohibited AI Practices

Part I. CMS February 7, 2025

EASA Policy newsletter Dec 2024 Topics New staffing in EC structures, Polish presidency, In-game marketing, Green Claims, ADR

Polish DPA bans Meta from processing personal data of two public figures
Traple Konarski Podrecki & Partners October 9, 2024

European/ international issues

Easa policy newsletter October 2024

ECJ '30 day' judgement Aldi pricing Sept 24, 2024

Google overturns 1.5 bil fine in EU ad case
AP News Sept 18, 2024. Haas here (FR) Oct 2

New ICC Code September 19, 2024

RR state that the new food supplements code will be made available 'end 2024' 

and the working group that is reviewing Beer advertising will report same timing 

European/ international issues

Commission's call for evidence on DSA minors protection guidelines; closes 30th Sept 2024

EASA on the above and two calls for tender August 8, 2024

Food supplement code developed (CMS) June 2024

Not available at time of writing (mid July 2024)

European/ international issues 

A new path for Privacy Sandbox on the web July 22, 2024
Google re new third party cookie plans for Chrome. BBC here

The Empco Directive. Taylor Wessing June 27, 2024

Member States implement by March 27, 2026 to take effect by 27 September 2026

EU issues

Privacy Sandbox Update News and Updates

EDPB Opinion On Pay Or OK Consent Models By Large Online Platforms

Ambush marketing: what you need to know ahead of the European summer of sport
Taylor Wessing May 16, 2024
Council Influencer conclusions May 14, 2024

The Greenwashing Directive enters into force: transposition period begins
Liedekerke April 19, 2024

EU issues

EASA Policy newsletter March 2024

Topics Finance, influencer marketing, green claims 
Agreement reached on the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive

Clifford Chance March 28, 2024

EU issues

EC Influencer sweep results February 14, 2024

EDAA launches new solution to DSA ad transparency requirements Feb 17, 2024

Rada Reklamy's working groups

In 2024, Rada Reklamy will continue to create new - or update current - self-regulatory provisions in the advertising code of ethics with its three thematic working groups.  The first working group focuses on self-regulation for dietary supplement advertising, in the context of this field's ever-changing market.  The second working group puts its emphasis on self-regulation around ethical aspects of the use of AI in advertising. The third group is working on reviewing and updating the provisions of the advertising code of ethics around beer advertising. The work of these three groups is expected to be completed by mid-2024. From EASA newsletter Jan 31, 2024

EU issues

EASA Jan 2024 update on GDPR and Cookie Pledge

EASA Jan 2024 update on DSA and DMA 

EASA Jan 2024 update on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition

EASA Jan 2024 update on AVMSD

EU: EDAA Unveils New Advanced Advertising Transparency Programme

EU issues:

EASA update on CPC Influencer activity October 11, 2023

Green Glaims Directive update from EASA October 11, 2023

UOKIK: Omnibus Directive, the regulation of influencer marketing and dark patterns

Osborne Clarke September 26, 2023/ Lex

Polish regulator zeros in on influencers - 2022-2023 developments in a nutshell. Bird & Bird LLP/ Lex Sept 22, 2023

EU issues: 

CJEU Landmark Data Protection Ruling for Online and Behavioural Advertising

William Fry/ Lex September 8, 2023

Proposal for a Directive of The European Parliament and of the Council on Consumer Credits

 In May 2023, IMCO published proposed CCD II on which provisional agreement has been reached. Plenary vote September 2023

'Surreptitious' advertising fined by UOKIK (EN)

Above EN from UOKIK 28 August, 2023

The DSA in Poland and EU June 7, 2023 

Proposal for a Directive on Green Claims. March 22, 2023

European Commission press release on the above here 

The Polish Data Protection Authority inspection plan for 2023
CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP/ Lex. January 24, 2023

Upcoming EU Rules on Green Claims. Covington and Burling LLP/ Lex January 23, 2023

Implementation of the Omnibus Directive. New rules in e-commerce industry. Taylor Wessing. 19 December 2022

The European Parliament Adopts New Sustainability Reporting Rules. Jones Day November 22, 2022 

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (above) affects companies with 'substantial business activity in the EU.'

A follow-up from UOKIK to the below is the announcement Oct 2022 (EN) of a new AR tool for tagging ads

UOKIK Recommendations Influencer Advertising (EN) announced 26/9/22

Above is link to UOKIK news story, full Recommendations here (EN) and GALA/ Lex commentary here 

23/4/22. Big Tech companies to face new EU content rules. This is the news that the 'Trilogue' (consisting of representation from the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament) have reached agreement on the Digital Services Act, 'a landmark piece of legislation that aims to address illegal and harmful content by getting platforms to rapidly take it down.' The Council's press release is here

December 2021 EASA update on the progress of the Digital Services Act 

December 2021 EASA update on the progress of the European Commission Beating Cancer Plan (BECA). The EC plan potentially impacts marketing/ advertising in both the Alcohol category and the Food and Beverages category 

December 2021 EASA update on Empowering the Consumer for the Green Transition. The EC has delayed the tabling of this initiative until 30 March 2022. Their ‘sweep’ results checking sustainability claims are here

UOKIK, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, announced October 2021 an investigation into the activities of Influencers on social media platforms. Their research 'shows that a lot of commercial content on influencer profiles on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook or other social media sites is not labelled as advertising at all. Other is marked insufficiently, e.g. only by the hashtag #ad, which may be incomprehensible to Polish internet users.' New guidelines are threatened and fines for those transgressing. ‘We want to introduce order to the market of sponsored content in social media.’

The Digital Services Act package

EASA's September 2021 update on the DSA here 

And on the Better Internet for Children Strategy (BIK strategy) here

And on environmental claims and the new consumer agenda here

 EU pages on the Farm to Fork strategy here

The EU’s Green Consumption Pledge Initiative focuses on 'non-food or mixed businesses with direct interaction with consumers'

 And complements the EU Code of Conduct for Responsible Food Business and Marketing Practices, in force July 2021 

Amendments to the Gambling Act are currently (March 2021) in the process of going through parliament. A far as we can establish, considerations do not include advertising at this point. There’s a helpful article here from DWF Poland and another - dated March 2021 - from WH Partners here. ‘For the time being, there is no information on the date of first reading of the draft amendment.’ Given the political situation in Poland, rapid development should probably not be anticipated 

Latest – and significant – news on the EU Farm to Fork strategy here; EU pages on the strategy here. Update above 

The EU’s Green Consumption Pledge Initiative focuses on “non-food or mixed businesses with direct interaction with consumers”  and complements the EU Code of conduct for responsible business and marketing practices that will focus on the food sector. This is planned for June 2021. Update above 

And the ‘green sweep’  - an EU review of websites that make environmental claims - finds that ‘in 42% of cases the claims were exaggerated, false or deceptive and could potentially qualify as unfair commercial practices under EU rules. ‘Greenwashing' has increased as consumers increasingly seek to buy environmentally sound products.’

https://www.citynews1130.com/2021/02/13/polands-prime-minister-defends-new-media-advertising-tax/

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Rada Reklamy's Green Project 'is a pioneering self-regulatory initiative on the Polish market to promote ethical communication and advertising in the field of environmental responsibility and sustainable development. In 2021, we are working on the introduction of an appendix to the Code of Ethics in Advertising, devoted to ethical advertising and communication in this area.'

FOOD: the EU's Farm to Fork strategy (EN) underlines that the Commission "will develop an EU Code of conduct for responsible business and marketing practice accompanied with a monitoring framework. The Code will be developed with all relevant stakeholders" in Q2 2021

Digital Services Act; Dec 2020 EASA news. Update above

The European Commission presented the Digital Services Act (DSA) that proposes a set of new EU wide rules for digital services, including on online advertising. According to the Commission, “the new framework will rebalance the rights and responsibilities of users, intermediary platforms, and public authorities and is based on European values - including the respect of human rights, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law”. The proposal is available here and press release here. The European Parliament and EU Member States will soon start discussing the proposal in the ordinary legislative procedure. In the first week of January, the EU Member States will meet in the margins of the Internal Market Working Party to discuss the proposal

The Code of Ethics in Advertising is extended with new provisions "Technical Document for Claims on Cosmetics."

This document is a legally non-binding guide to the practical application of the criteria for marketing declarations. The content it contains indicates how to understand and interpret the criteria such as honesty, truthfulness of the information provided, or awareness of decisions made in marketing communication of cosmetic products.

The collection of good practices in this document provides useful guidance on how to apply the claims so that they are properly explained, supported by evidence and understood by the consumer. By applying the provisions of this document, it is possible to properly formulate marketing statements and to evaluate them in relation to the overall presentation of the cosmetic product. This document is also a practical tool for arbitrators of the Advertising Ethics Committee who evaluate advertising messages from the cosmetics industry.

Rada Reklamy has issued a statement on a proposed new tax in Poland that would come into force from this year, putting a 10% levy on the revenue from advertising for dietary supplements.The Polish government is working on a bill to impose additional fees on soft drinks containing sugars, a so-called sugar tax, as a tool to fight the rapid increase of obesity that PAP has found out. The main category of beverages to be taxed are those containing monosaccharides, disaccharides or oligosaccharides and foods containing these substances and other substances used for their sweetening properties, in line with the 2008 EC regulation on food additives.The tax will also cover alcoholic drinks of up to 300 ml in volume as well as the advertising of dietary supplements. Around 98 percent of receipts from the sugar tax will top up the budget of the national health fund NFZ, while the remaining 2 percent will be used by the Finance Ministry for the tax-related operating costs.

Links to the Rada Reklamy website changed

PO: https://radareklamy.pl/

EN: https://radareklamy.pl/en/home-en/