Introduction

In Austria four different regulations specifically refer to alcohol marketing and advertising. These are the Federal Act on the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, the Private Radio Act, the Private Television Act, which are all statutory. And the non-statutory Self Regulation Codex set up by the Austrian Advertising Council - the self regulation agency of the Austrian advertising industry.

All three statutory Regulations are directed only at specific institutions, which provide advertising space. These are the Austrian Broadcasting Company (Federal Act on the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation), the Austrian private radio broadcasting companies (Private Radio Act) and the Austrian private television broadcasting companies, all with their respective clients (Private Television Act). In general these regulations include a total ban on advertising spirits and restrictions on advertising other alcoholic beverages. The non-statutory regulations set up by the Austrian Advertising Council are directed at all companies related to the Austrian advertising industry and concern all kinds of "economical advertising" (not included: sponsoring, product placement etc.). These regulations contain guidelines on what should be avoided when dealing with advertising alcoholic beverages.

Besides these regulations, since 1997 a paragraph exists regulating advertising in schools. This paragraph doesn't explicitly mention alcoholic beverages, but includes them in practice. It says that in schools, at school events and at events directly connected to schools, it is only allowed to advertise if the duties and responsibilities of the Austrian school system are preserved. It is thus understood that you can't advertise in schools for products like alcohol, tobacco, computer games unsuitable, sects or destructive cults.

The mentioned regulations have not been changed essentially in the last years. As of 2004 KommAustria is legally obligated to observe the adherence to the national regulations by checking monthly samples of all Austrian broadcasting companies. Also in 2004 the Austrian Advertising Council implemented a copy advice service as an additional facility (Note: both, the observations of KommAustria and the copy advice do not explicitly or exclusively deal with alcohol issues, but do include them).

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This information is derived from the ELSA project completed in 2007, but will be updated soon.