Introduction

In the Czech Republic, five different regulation mechanisms exist, which relate to the advertising and marketing of alcoholic beverages. Three of them are statutory - Act No. 40/1995 Coll., on the Regulation of Advertisement, Act No. 231/2001 Coll., on TV and Radio Broadcasting and Act No. 37/1989 Coll., on the Protection against Alcoholism and other Toxicomanias, the remaining two are non-statutory Self-regulations: Code of Practice of the Association of Alcohol Producers and Code of Advertising Practice of the Czech Advertising Standards Council.

To understand the situation in the Czech Republic, it is necessary to mention, that before 1989 there were no privately owned companies in the CR; the sole owner of all business organizations was the state. Advertising and product marketing were quite insignificant, only of secondary nature. After the political changes in 1989, a lavish boom of advertising and promotional activities took place, in principle without any restrictions. The free market and strongly expanding availability of alcoholic beverages together with their massive and aggressive advertisement and promotion led to the increase in alcohol consumption especially among adolescents.

Regulations related to alcohol were not particularly strong in the CR. However, after the Czech Republic joined the European Union, they were harmonised with EU legislation. Nevertheless, provisions regulating advertisement and promotion of alcohol remain unsatisfactory.

Non-statutory codes declare in principle the intention of alcohol producers and the advertising industry to voluntarily follow the policy to not target children and youth. However, taking into account the fact that Czech football Extra-league officially bears the name "Gambrinus" (popular beer brand), it is obvious that this official declaration of intentions may not always translate into serious actions.

See complete country report Czech Republic (64,3 kB)

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