Advertisers and content creators should make their collaboration sufficiently clear in advertising messages. This can be done by "#ad," for example, but there are other ways. An example is "#LiptoniceTeaAmbassador."
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Greenpeace is allowed to express its opinion in a confrontational commercial about the role it believes the Dutch bank Rabobank plays in the nature, climate, and nitrogen crisis. This was decided by the Advertising Code Committee. The television commercial features images of forest fires, mega-stalls and the felling of rain forests. The text and voice-over says, among other things: "Rabobank, proud sponsor of festivals & nature destruction" and "Rabobank, proud sponsor of museums & cutting down rainforests."
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Because of the spam ban, you may not just send marketing e-mails. In principle, this requires prior permission. But what about informative service messages? Is permission never required? Pay attention!
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In a YouTube video the dairy producer Melkunie claims to be on the sustainable tour: Melkunie is planting 40,000 trees. That's not greenwashing. Why not? Melkunie does what it says and also explains its sustainability claim. The fact that dairy production has harmful effects on the environment does not mean that Melkunie should no longer use the word sustainable.
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Before a consumer purchases something online, the seller must provide certain information to that consumer. Any webshop should carefully check whether it complies with these information obligations. In the Netherlands, judges have to assess this ex officio and impose a sanction for a violation, such as refund of the purchase price.
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Sustainability claims are important. As a company you want to be able to communicate what you have already achieved, and what your ambitions are to help our planet. As a consumer, you want to know exactly what the sustainable element of the product or service is. And you want to be able to trust that. Greenwashing is counterproductive.
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Green, greener, greenest! Consumers are increasingly making (more) conscious choices for more sustainable, natural products. The food industry is embracing this need. Chewing gum producer BenBits also advertises with "natural" and "plastic-free" gum. This year, competitors Perfetti (Mentos and others) and BenBits submitted complaints about each other's advertising.
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You sell products of someone else's brand. You would like a web shop that is easy to find for customers interested in that brand. Therefore, you use a domain name that includes that brand. Is that allowed...? The plaintiff in the Elisabetta Franchi case is.
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A new nuance in the discussion about ‘climate neutral’ claims: Arla mentions on its organic dairy products that the milk and yogurt would be climate neutral, as it invests in the planting of new trees in Africa. By this Arla means that its dairy is climate neutral because it is certified according to the climate neutral label CNG (Climate Neutral Group), a solid quality label with strict requirements. That label uses the wording "climate neutral”. Can Arla do this too? The Board of Appeal distinguishes between two types of climate-neutral statements.
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Attention to legal Counsels from ad agencies and major advertisers! On 13 October 2022, the Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance (GALA) will host its annual advertising law conference at the Ham Yard Hotel in London. The theme of this year’s conference is "Global Advertising in an Age of Crisis and Change".
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In July 2022, a complaint was submitted at the ACC against brewer Liefmans' claims "alcohol-free" and "0.0" on the label and website of its Liefmans Fruitesse 0.0 beer. Why? Both the use of '0.0' and 'alcohol-free' would be misleading. In fact, as was also stated on the Liefmans website at the time of the complaint, the fruit beer contains less than 0.05% alcohol. The beer is thus not completely alcohol-free.
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Advertisers may use a self-developed logo in advertising if it is made sufficiently clear what is meant by this logo. This general principle was confirmed in a recent case before the Advertising Code Committee (ACC) between Unilever and Foodwatch. Foodwatch filed a complaint alleging that the "Responsibly Made for Kids" logo developed by Unilever was misleading.
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A webshop may not claim that reviews are authentic if this has not been investigated. And the posting of fake reviews by webshops (or having them posted) is now misleading by definition. This follows from the new e-commerce rules that apply since May 28, 2022 as a result of the implementation of the Modernization Directive (2019/2161).
But how does one prove that a review is fake or real?
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The expressions about sustainability are numerous, as are the rulings of the Advertising Code Committee on this subject. Here are some tips and general guidelines to see through the forest of sustainable/green/eco trees.
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On 17 May 2022, the Dutch Media Authority (CvdM) published the new Policy Rule on Qualification of Commercial Media Services on Demand 2022. Very briefly: as of 1 July 2022, vloggers with 500,000 or more followers must register with the CvdM, join the Advertising Code Committee, register with NICAM (age rating) and comply with the rules of the Media Act (including the also renewed policy rules of the CvdM on sponsorship and product placement).
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Nutri-Score is a voluntary food choice logo that helps consumers to make healthier choices when purchasing within a product group. Nutri-Score has not yet been officially introduced in the Netherlands; this is expected to happen in 2022. Nutri-Score can already be found on store shelves as part of pilots and because it is already in use abroad.
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Taste is subjective and therefore it cannot be copyrighted, was the ruling in the Heksenkaas case. In this Advertising Code Committee case the issue is not the copyright on taste, but the expectation of the taste of a biscuit based on the packaging.
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For almost 15 years, our office was located in the Emerald House, in the shadow of the Okura Hotel. Everything was there: meeting rooms, comfy rooms, computers, standing desks, a photocopier, a rather psychedelic graffiti of a geisha in traditional Dutch costume and reasonable coffee. Yet slowly it was time for something new.
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The vegan shoarma pizza is the latest addition to New York Pizza's pizza range. This launch did not go unnoticed, as is often the case with this pizza specialist. Earlier, we reported that the campaign promoting the cauliflower pizza base caught the eye.
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The Dutch Advertising Code Committee (ACC) issued an important ruling on 26 August 2021. The ACC sets very high standards for the substantiation of CO2 neutralization claims.
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