Sneaky advertising on linear television is also being watched

Especially when I talk to clients who make their money on YouTube or Twitch and when we come to the problem of sneaking advertising and labelling, I often hear why this would not apply to other media and that courts are probably only new media. want to be silenced. This is of course nonsense, as can be seen, for example, in the current case law on affiliate links (see this article), which also affects things like price comparison sites, etc.

But linear television (for the young people among the readers: something like RTL and Pro Sieben) also applies the same or at least the similar rules of the game. In some cases, these are even more severe, because product placement is very difficult to implement, because there is no possibility to place a hint for the users in a series, for example.

Nevertheless, here too, the media institutions are paying attention to compliance with the rules of the game and against television stations. Often also successful, as recently in a case by RTL against a complaint order of the Lower Saxony State Media Institute for illegal product placement in the RTL series “Everything That Matters”. The Administrative Court of Hanover has partially dismissed this.

In the underlying case, the Niedersächsische Landesmedienanstalt had complained that, by broadcasting episode No 1988 of ‘Everything That Matters’, on 8 August 2014, RTL had infringed the provisions of the Broadcasting State Treaty by hair care product had been over-exposed.

The Administrative Court of Hanover saw this as well, because, among other things, the advertising poster for the product could be seen in the sequence of pictures about a dozen times in part in a picture-filling. The presentation of the product was clearly and too much in the focus in a three-minute sequence of the episode. In that regard, the General Court dismissed the action.

The complaint was only dismissed with regard to the allegation that RTL had impaired its own editorial responsibility and independence with the action. RTL does not have to be involved in such a series in the form of a contract production from the outset.

Author: Marian Härtel

Marian Härtel ist Rechtsanwalt und Fachanwalt für IT-Recht mit einer über 25-jährigen Erfahrung als Unternehmer und Berater in den Bereichen Games, E-Sport, Blockchain, SaaS und Künstliche Intelligenz. Seine Beratungsschwerpunkte umfassen neben dem IT-Recht insbesondere das Urheberrecht, Medienrecht sowie Wettbewerbsrecht. Er betreut schwerpunktmäßig Start-ups, Agenturen und Influencer, die er in strategischen Fragen, komplexen Vertragsangelegenheiten sowie bei Investitionsprojekten begleitet. Dabei zeichnet sich seine Beratung durch einen interdisziplinären Ansatz aus, der juristische Expertise und langjährige unternehmerische Erfahrung miteinander verbindet. Ziel seiner Tätigkeit ist stets, Mandanten praxisorientierte Lösungen anzubieten und rechtlich fundierte Unterstützung bei der Umsetzung innovativer Geschäftsmodelle zu gewährleisten.