On 25 February the State Consumer Rights Protection Authority imposed a fine of 580 euros upon the national broadcaster “TV 3” for the violation of the provisions of the Law on Alcohol Control.

“TV3” was fined because during the live broadcast of the basketball match on 9 January 2008 at 7 p.m. it infringed the provision of the Law on Alcohol Control, which prohibits alcohol advertisements with sportsmen participating in them and the provision on watershed hours, which for alcohol advertising in Lithuania are from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

“TV3”violated the mentioned provisions of the Law by showing basketball players wearing T-shirts with logos of Lithuanian famous and very popular beer “Švyturys” on them during live broadcast of the game. Same logos were visible on the floor and the stands around the basketball ground.

For clarity sake it is important to note, that logos of alcohol products were visible on screen only in the background of the game, therefore the broadcaster could not technically avoid them.

However, the State Consumer Rights Protection Authority, which is responsible for the control of the requirements on advertising of alcohol in the media, treated the described case as infringement of the Law. According to the recent amendments of the Law on Alcohol Control (see IRIS 2007-8:15), that came into force on 1 January 2008 alcohol advertising is prohibited on broadcast programmes of broadcasters under Lithuania’s jurisdiction from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Actually, earlier in the year, when the mentioned law came into effect, there were many debates concerning broadcasting of logos of alcohol products during sports programmes.

The main subject of the debates was, if broadcasting of the logos of alcohol products, that are placed inside of the sports field during the live broadcast of the sports games could be equaled to traditional advertising and if stricter requirements (compared to those before the amendments were made) for such advertising should be applied.

The solution to this issue was not found yet. The LR Seimas (Parliament) formed the working group to work out the necessary amendments to this issue, which have to be prepared by the 31^st of March.