POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Szymon Gogulski, Marek Oleksyn and Damian Ludwiniak, Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak
Under the same law, sponsorship of sporting, cultural, educational, health and socio-political activities by a tobacco company is also prohibited, including manu - facturers or importers of tobacco products or related products. The labelling on the wrapper and packaging and the tobacco product must not contain any element or feature that, for example, promotes or encourages consumption of the tobacco product. Alcoholic Beverages The advertising and promotion of alcoholic beverages is prohibited in Poland, with the exception of beer, for which advertising and promotion are permitted sub - ject to certain conditions and restrictions outlined in detail in the Law of 26 October 1982 on Upbringing in Sobriety and Counteracting Alcoholism. It is also prohibited to advertise and promote products and services whose name, trade mark, graphic shape or packaging resembles or is identical to the desig - nation of an alcoholic beverage or any other symbol objectively referring to an alcoholic beverage. The advertisement and promotion of entrepreneurs and other entities that use the name, trademark, graphic design, or packaging associated with an alco - holic beverage, its producer, or distributor are prohib - ited in Poland. Food Food products are subject to advertising rules and regulations arising from both EU and national Pol - ish regulations. For example, under EU Regulation 1169/2011, food information cannot be misleading, particularly: • as to the characteristics of the food and, in particu - lar, as to its nature, identity, properties, composi - tion, quantity, durability, country of origin or place of provenance, method of manufacture or produc - tion; • by attributing effects or properties to the food that it does not possess; • by suggesting that the food possesses special characteristics when in fact all similar foods pos - sess such characteristics, in particular by specifi -
cally emphasising the presence or absence of certain ingredients and/or nutrients; or • by suggesting the presence of a particular food or ingredient, by means of the appearance, the description or pictorial representations, when in reality a component naturally present or an ingredi - ent normally used in that food has been substituted with a different component or a different ingredient. Moreover, food information must be accurate, clear and easy for the consumer to understand. These EU law requirements also apply to food advertising. Irrespectively, Polish laws set out several rules and restrictions on advertising food products. For exam - ple, the Polish Law of 25 August 2006 on Food and Nutrition Safety provides, among other matters, that the advertising of infant formula may only be carried out in popular science publications specialising in the dissemination of childcare knowledge or in scien - tific publications, and must be limited to information substantiated by scientific studies. The information contained in advertising must not imply that artificial feeding is equivalent to or more beneficial than breast - feeding. 10.2 Product Placement Product placement is regulated in the Polish Broad - casting Law of 29 December 1992, which defines this type of advertising activity as “a commercial commu - nication consisting of the representation of or refer - ence to a good, a service or the trade mark thereof so that it is featured within a user-created broadcast or video in return for payment or for similar consideration or in the form of provision of a good or service free of charge”. Product placement is permitted under the Broad - casting Law, except for certain specifically listed programmes, including news (excluding sports and weather reports), socio-political programmes, con - sumer affairs programmes, religious programmes, and children’s programmes. Programmes that contain product placement must be clearly identified as such in television programmes by a logo and in radio programmes by an acoustic signal indicating that product placement has taken place, at
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