VOX must label trailer as advertising

The television broadcaster VOX must label the trailer for the live tour of presenter and dog behaviour expert Martin Rütter as advertising. A lawsuit filed by the broadcaster before the Administrative Court of Cologne (VG Köln) against the objection raised by the State Media Authority failed.

BaLL LunLa / Shutterstock.com

The TV broadcaster VOX had broadcast trailers in the course of the programmes "Der V.I.P. Hundeprofi" and "Der Hundeprofi unterwegs" presented by Martin Rütter in the years 2013 and 2014, which drew attention to a live tour by the presenter.

The approximately 15-second trailers showed brief dialogues with Martin Rütter. A telephone number for "tickets and information" was also displayed. The State Media Authority had objected to these trailers on the grounds that they advertised the live tour of the dog behaviour expert without identifying it as advertising as required under the Broadcasting State Treaty. The broadcaster VOX's action against the objection failed.

Court decision – VOX must label trailer as advertising

By judgment of 31.03.2016 – 6 K 4476/14, the Administrative Court of Cologne (VG Köln) dismissed the TV broadcaster's action (Press release of 31.03.2016). The State Media Authority was right in concluding that neither of the two trailers was limited to programme-related notices that do not require labelling, but rather that, having regard to all relevant circumstances, they should be classified as advertising requiring labelling for the tours of dog behaviour expert Martin Rütter. The displayed ticket hotline spoke in favour of this classification.

Furthermore, the court pointed out that the trailers had not been broadcast within an advertising block. For the average viewer, this had been ended respectively after programme announcements for further VOX programmes and with the display of the broadcaster's logo.

The broadcaster's objection that broadcasts by other broadcasters may also not have been adequately labelled as advertising likewise failed.

Conclusion

In Germany, the principles governing television advertising are regulated in the Broadcasting State Treaty. This provides, among other things, that advertising must be easily identifiable as such and must be distinguishable from editorial content. Furthermore, advertising must be clearly separated from other programme segments by optical and acoustic means or spatially. According to the court's view, the trailers broadcast by TV broadcaster VOX did not meet these requirements. On the one hand, the court classified the trailers as advertising because a ticket hotline was displayed. On the other hand, the trailer appeared outside the labelled advertising block without a separate indication that it was advertising. However, such an indication would have been required in this case.