Introduction

In Italy six different regulations (statutory and non statutory) exist that specifically refer to alcohol marketing and advertising. The "Law on alcohol and alcohol related problems" (2001), the Ratification of the European convention on Television without Frontiers" (1991), the "Self-regulation code on TV and minors" (2002) and the "Regulations for the implementation of art. 13,15,16 of the European Directive 3 October 1989 (89/552 CEE) regarding television advertising of alcoholic beverages and tobacco and the protection of minors" (1991) are statutory codes. The "Advertising self-regulation code" (1966) and the "Ethical code issued by national public radio - TV network (Rai)" (1954) are non-statutory codes.

All these rules are mainly related to alcohol advertising contents with few bans on location, time, media and type of product. The application of these rules is rather complicated, whereas for the characteristics of advertising timetable it would be fundamental to have simple and efficient procedures. For these reasons, the "Advertising Self-regulation code" is in practise the main regulation of alcohol
marketing in Italy with regards to the complaint procedures. But unfortunately this code regulates only the contents of the alcohol advertising.

Compared to other European countries, in Italy legislators have only recently taken into account the effects of advertising on alcohol consumption, by adopting the European directive 89/552 regarding this issue. For the first time in 2001 the Law on Alcohol and Alcohol Related Problems included a specific article on advertising of alcoholic beverages. Nevertheless the application and the enforcement of this law is difficult because of the ill-defined sanctions and
procedures.

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