By Suzanna Kerridge, 5 February 2001 00:30
NEWS In its current form, the Tobacco Advertising and Promotions Bill proposes to ban the promotion of tobacco through UK-based TV, radio, newspapers and poster campaigns. ISPs are also banned from selling space to cigarette advertisers. However, thanks to a legal loophole, overseas ISPs will be able to accept cigarette adverts and international companies can promote non UK-based brands. This could see Swiss-based Philip Morris using American sites such as Yahoo.com to promote its products to UK consumers. Ian Bruce, MP for Weymouth and member of the Tobacco Advertising and Promotions Bill committee, said: "Anything on the internet not within UK jurisdiction is not policed. This means there is nothing wrong with non-UK cigarette manufacturers sending emails or adverts to overseas ISPs' web pages." Bruce predicted that with all other advertising banned, companies will move towards the web and give international companies an unfair advantage. He added: "The UK is supposed to be the best place in Europe [for ebusiness] but this flaw causes billions of pounds of potential UK ad money to go overseas. It's a disaster for British industry, interests and the health of young people." David Kerr, chief executive of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), agreed. "It would seem that a Bill or legislation to control advertising offline that does not have the means to police online would have a difficult time and that advertising would gravitate towards online. If the legislation only applies to UK online adverts then there may be the tendency for companies to go overseas as well," he said. Measures to close this loophole would be of such a disproportionate size it would render the Bill unworkable, he added. However, a spokesman for the ISP Association (ISPA) claimed the Bill also raised the problem of the liability of UK ISPs, whose users viewed the adverts on international sites accessed through .co.uk addresses. The association called for the Bill to acknowledge its members as conduits and not hold them responsible for third party content. It claimed the current amendments to the Bill were not far reaching enough give UK ISPs a legal defence.
Comments
There is 1 comment. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
bill~
i think what you are doing is a awesome thing to do! tobacco is wrong for anybody! and you are doing something about it! you are truely brave! we need more people like you in the world! thank you a ton!