Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1 Preliminary rulings - Jurisdiction of the Court - Limits - Manifestly irrelevant question

(EC Treaty, Art. 177)

2 Freedom to provide services - Television broadcasting activities - Directive 89/552 - Member States' option to increase transmission time devoted to advertising - Conditions for exercise - Transmission of direct offers to the public or other types of advertising requiring more time than normally required for spot advertisements

(Council Directive 89/552, Arts 1(b) and 18)

3 Freedom to provide services - Television broadcasting activities - Directive 89/552 - Sponsored programmes - Insertion of sponsor's name or logo at times other than the beginning or the end of the programme - Whether permissible

(Council Directive 89/552, Art. 17(1)(b))

Summary

4 In the procedure for cooperation between the Court of Justice and the courts of Member States, the national courts, which alone have direct knowledge of the facts of the case, are the best placed to determine, in the light of the particular features of the case, whether a preliminary ruling is necessary to enable them to give judgment.

Consequently, where the questions put by a national court concern the interpretation of a provision of Community law, the Court is, in principle, bound to give a ruling. It cannot, however, give a preliminary ruling on a question raised by a national court where, inter alia, the interpretation of Community law or the examination of the validity of a rule of Community law sought by the national court bears no relation to the actual nature of the case or to the subject-matter of the main action.

5 Directive 89/552 concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities, and in particular Articles 1(b) and 18 thereof, must be interpreted as meaning that the expression `forms of advertisements such as direct offers to the public' in Article 18 is used in the context of the Community rules, with regard to the possibility of increasing maximum advertising time to 20% of daily transmission time, by way of example. Consequently, it may also cover other forms of promotion, such as `telepromotions' which, like `direct offers to the public', require more time than spot advertisements on account of their method of presentation.

The provision by the Community legislature for an increase in the maximum transmission time for direct offers to the public is due to the fact that that type of sales promotion requires more transmission time than spot advertisements, and not to the fact that such offers present products which may be directly ordered by telephone, mail or videotext and are intended to be delivered to viewers at home, since the ordering of products by the viewer is a wholly separate operation from the televised presentation with which the directive is concerned. It is therefore normal that other forms of advertising, which also require more time than spot advertisements, should be able to benefit from the increase that is expressly, but not exclusively, provided for in respect of direct offers to the public. It is, however, for each Member State, if it intends to use the option granted to it by Article 18 in respect of television broadcasters under its jurisdiction to raise the maximum transmission time for advertising to 20%, to decide, while complying with the Treaty, whether that increase may benefit types of advertising which, whilst being distinct from spot advertisements, do not constitute direct offers to the public.

6 In the case of sponsored programmes, Directive 89/552 concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities, and in particular Article 17(1)(b) thereof, must be interpreted as permitting the insertion of the sponsor's name or logo at times other than the beginning and/or the end of the programme. As regards television broadcasters under their jurisdiction, however, Member States remain free under Article 3(1) of the directive to lay down stricter or more detailed rules in this area, provided they do not infringe the freedoms guaranteed by the Treaty and, in particular, the freedom to provide services and the free movement of goods. That interpretation does not alter the fact that sponsored television programmes must not encourage the purchase or rental of the products or services of the sponsor or a third party, in particular by making special promotional references to those products or services.