THE COMPETITION AUTHORITY'S REPLY TO RAI REGARDING CONCEALED ADVERTISING
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
The Competition Authority's reply to RAI regarding concealed advertising
The Competition Authority is all too aware that its statutory power to request television broadcasters to provide a copy of a recording of its programmes is not matched by any obligation on part of the broadcaster to comply. This is precisely why complaints are often shelved, but not in every instance.
For whenever it is possible, and despite the lack of a statutory obligation of compliance, the Authority succeeds in acquiring the recordings from third companies which keep copies of all the broadcasts for three months. In quite a few cases this has enabled the Authority to take action against RAI, and to find it liable for concealed advertising, issuing measures in the past that have since become final. It should be emphasised that other broadcasters have provided, and continue to provide, copies of their commercials and programmes.
It is therefore a matter of surprise that the public broadcasting corporation rejects any cooperation whatsoever with the Authority that has been established to protect consumers from misleading and concealed advertising, considering the great sensitivity to this issue that RAI itself has frequently expressed.
Rome, 22 June 2004