Advertising of wine and champagne will return to the media and Internet

The complete ban on advertising of alcoholic drinks in printed media and in Internet may be corrected: the respective draft law was approved at the session of the inter-faction task force on protection of the entrepreneurs’ rights.

The amendments (Izvestia has them) are planned for Article 21 of the Law “On advertising”. The Article will stipulate permission of advertising of wine and sparkling wine (champagne) in printed media and in Internet. Viktor Zvagelsky, member of the State Duma Committee on economic policy, innovative development and entrepreneurship, will move the amendments in May. The explanatory note to the draft law says that the entrance to the wine market for farmers and small ventures is “extremely difficult” as they are unable, due to the existing provisions of the Advertising Law, to supply the information on their wines to the Russian consumers. This practice contravenes the official policy aimed at increasing the area of vineyards and the number of Russian wineries.

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We remind that the prohibition of advertising of any alcoholic drinks in printed media was enacted on January 1^st of 2013. At the same time, Internet closed for strong drinks. <…>

The Federal Antimonopoly Service does not discard the possibility of discussing the problem.

Sergey Puzyrevsky, Head of the Law Department of the FAS, says: “This matter can be discussed with the Ministry of Health and Social development from the point of view of the effect of advertising of alcoholic drinks and wine in particular. If there are numbers (which show the harm of wine for the people – Izvestia), the ban is reasonable. If no such surveys were made, the matter is worth discussing additionally”.

However, the perspectives of adoption of the draft law in its current state are doubtful. Advocate Alexander Yevdokimov, Head of Arbitration Practice of the Law Firm "YUST", believes that, taking into account the latest policy of the State towards the problem of alcohol and the respective legislative tendencies, that would be illogical.

The lawyer says: “The will of the State in the sphere of protection of health from ill effects of alcohol and tobacco smoking has been expressed in an unambiguous and harsh way. Meanwhile, despite the fact that our society as a whole is more tolerant to smoking than to alcohol consummation, the limitations on smoking are currently very strict, sometimes even tougher than in Europe. Thus, it is difficult to imagine any solid grounds, which would make the lawmakers to abandon the “general line” regarding certain types of alcoholic products.

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For more details see here.