Audiovisual advertising and the modernisation of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive : fit for purpose?

Abstract

The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) is a piece of legislation that applies to all types of services having the sharing of ‘audiovisual content’ as their essential functionality, regardless of the type of technology it is communicated through. The Directive was most recently amended in 2018. These amendments represented the most recent and substantive changes to the AVMSD since 2007. This dissertation assesses whether these amendments were fit for purpose, with a focus on the regulation of audiovisual advertising. It explores and identifies what is regulated under the AVMSD, what constitutes audiovisual advertising, why it needed to be regulated, what sparked the need for the 2018 amendments and which is the ideal type of regulation for such services. It overviews the history of media regulation within the EU. Most importantly it analyses the provisions in the 2007 AVMSD dealing with advertising regulation across different types of services. It provides a critical analysis of the 2018 amendments, more specifically on those parts dealing with the regulation of advertisements. The manner in which the 2018 amendments were transposed into Maltese law and Ireland's attempts at the same, the drawbacks of the amendments and any gaps left by the law are also identified and analysed. In conclusion the dissertation highlights the major changes brought about by the amendments and reviews whether they were fit for purpose. The analysis shows that the 2018 amendments were indeed fit for purpose in relation to the developments which occurred between 2007 and 2018. However, they fail to envisage, recognise, and address the future exploitation of consumers by not addressing emerging concerns such as the constant rise in the amount of advertisements on VSPs which remains uncapped and unregulated to this day.