Swedish court removes ban on alcohol advertising

The quarter century old ban on the advertising of alcoholic beverages in Sweden's printed media came to an end in February when the Swedish Market Court ruled that it violated European Union legislation, in particular, one of the principal features of the EU inner market, the free movement of goods.

The court's decision resolves a five year long legal struggle between the Consumer Board and Gourmet magazine and leaves producers of alcoholic beverages to advertise their products in the Swedish media. The ban on television and radio alcohol advertisements remains in force.

Jan Nilsson, editor-in-chief of Gourmet, said he expected the ruling to take immediate effect, adding that many beverage producers had been watching the court proceedings very carefully and awaiting the court's decision. A number of Swedish newspapers and magazines have said they would welcome advertisements for alcoholic beverages in their publications. They did, however, make the point that any such advertisements should be in good taste and not specifically directed to young people.

Sweden is now in the paradoxical situation of having a law which forbids advertisements for alcoholic beverages in the printed media and, at the same time, regulations imposed by Brussels which make it quite all right to break that law.

Government officials say they have already started preparing a draft of a new law, which they hope will be able to prevent the advertising of hard liquor products.

"It's too early to say anything about the details but we hope to be able to stop advertising for hard liquors as they've done in Finland, " said Morgan Johansson, minister responsible for public health issues. In Finland it is prohibited to advertise beverages with an alcohol content above 23 per cent.

Mr Johansson found the ruling particularly alarming in the light of figures which showed that alcohol consumption rose by 8.3 per cent, measured as pure alcohol, last year.

The Market Court also ruled that the argument justifying the ban on public health grounds, put forward in court by the Consumer Board, was not in proportion to the damages caused to trade. Instead, it claimed that the Swedish high alcohol taxes and the state retail monopoly were more than efficient tools to achieve such political goals.

The ruling does not apply to television and radio, although commercial television channel TV3, the first television channel ever in Sweden, ran commercials for several wine and whisky products last December and said it would continue doing so if the court ruled in the media's and advertisers' favour.

Swedish television channels face competition from satellite channels broadcast from abroad, such as the music channel MTV. These channels are able to carry advertisements for alcoholic beverages.

As the Swedish Government suffers this reversal of its long-standing policy, other countries are in the process of considering restrictions on alcohol advertising. Ireland's health ministry has announced that it is thinking about measures to control alcohol advertising as part of the government's plans to cope with alcohol abuse. These include a total ban on spirits advertising, health warnings included in all alcohol advertisements, a watershed for television advertising, and a ban on cinema advertising to audiences which include people under eighteen.