Introduction

In Belgium there is only one federal law regulating alcohol advertising, namely the "Consumers Health Law" of the 24th of January 1977. The Consumers Health Law contains only one article on alcohol advertising.

Since Belgium is a federal state, and advertising on radio and television is considered a community competence, advertising on radio and television is regulated at the community level. This means that there are five different statutory regulations which regulate television and radio broadcasting in the three Communities (the Flemish, French and German-speaking Community) and the three Regions (the Flemish Region, the Brussels-Capital Region and the Walloon Region). They all contain a chapter on the regulation of advertising, sponsoring and teleshopping and in most cases alcohol is specifically mentioned. The stipulations about alcoholmarketing in the different community laws are similar in each region. Until May 2005, advertising for beer was (self)regulated by the "code of conduct and advertising concerning beer" of the beer industry.

By means of the "covenant concerning behaviour and advertising on alcoholic drinks", the former selfregulation code of the beer industry evolved to a coregulation between the alcohol industry, consumer organisations and the government. This covenant was published on the 12th of May 2005. The covenant now regulates all kinds of advertising for drinks with an alcoholpercentage of more than 1,2% vol. On the 14th of October 2005 the federal board of ministers approved a proposition
to change the Consumers' Health Law of 24th of January 1977. This would give the covenant a legal basis. Until this moment though, the Consumers Health Law has not been changed, so the covenant remains a non-statutory regulation.

The best known controlling agency is the JEP (Jury on Ethical Practices concerning advertising). It treats complaints and gives pre-launch advice about advertising campaigns. The JEP is a selfregulatory organ of the advertising sector set up by the council of advertising in 1974. The council of advertising is an association consisting of representative advertisers, media and advertising companies. The JEP has no legal authority. Besides the JEP, which operates nationally, there are specific agencies at the community level that check for violations of the community based regulations.

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The text is derived from the ELSA project which is completed in 2007, but will be updated soon.