Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-23T18:09:43.765Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Regulation of Alcohol Marketing in France: The Loi Evin at Thirty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2022

Marine Friant-Perrot  and
Amandine Garde
Marine Friant-Perrot
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITY OF NANTES, FRANCE
Amandine Garde
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL, UNITED KINGDOM
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

When adopted in 1991, the French Loi Evin was pioneering as one of the first in the world to regulate alcohol marketing as extensively. This short contribution assesses whether it remains fit for purpose over 30 years later. To this effect, it assesses its main provisions, considers the legislative amendments that have ensued as well as the extensive interpretation French courts have given of its scope, before concluding that the prospects for its revisions are limited in the near future.

Keywords

Public HealthAlcohol AdvertisingFreedom of ExpressionFranceLoi Evin
Type
Symposium Articles
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 50 , Issue 2: Commercial Speech and Commercial Determinants of Health , Summer 2022 , pp. 312 - 316
Copyright
© 2022 The Author(s)

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

For international evidence, see O’Brien, P. et al., “Commercial Advertising of Alcohol: Using Law to Challenge Public Health Regulation,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (2022): 240–249. (For recent calls at regional level, see among others, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Status Report on Alcohol Consumption, Harm and Policy Responses in 30 European Countries (Copenhagen: WHO, 2019); WHO Regional Office for Europe, Digital Marketing of Alcohol: Challenges and Policy Options for Better Health in the WHO European Region (Copenhagen: WHO, 2019). For calls at national level, see Santé Publique France, Avis d’experts relatif à l’évolution du discours public en matière de consommation d’alcoFranceFrance (Saint-Maurice/Boulogne -Billancourt: SantFrancelique France/INCa, 2017); Inserm (ed.), Réduction des dommages associés à la consommation d’alcool. (Collection Expertise col lective, Montrouge: EDP Sciences, 2021. XII).Google Scholar
Association Addictions France (previously the Association Nationale de Prévention en Alcoologie et Addictologie or Anpaa), available at <https://addictions-france.org/> (last visited May 11, 2022).+(last+visited+May+11,+2022).>Google Scholar
See, in particular, Garde, A. and Friant-Perrot, M., “The Regulation of Marketing Practices for Tobacco, Alcoholic Beverages and Foods High in Fat, Sugar and Salt- A Highly Fragmented Landscape,” in Alemanno, A. and Garde, A. (eds), Regulating Lifestyle Risks in Europe: Tobacco, Alcohol and Unhealhty Diets (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015); O. Bartett and A. Garde, “EU Public Health Law and Policy – on the Rocks? A Few Sobering Thoughts on the Growing EU Alcohol Problem,” in T. Hervey et al. (eds), Research Handbook on EU Health Law and Policy (London: Edward Elgar, 2017), at 369.Google Scholar
Loi Evin n°91-32 of 10 January 1991 to protect public health from tobacco and alcohol, JORF n°10, 12 January 1991. The Loi Evin amends the Public Health Code. For the provisions dealing specifically with alcohol advertising, see Articles L3323-1 to L3323-6.Google Scholar
The Loi Evin applies to all beverages containing more than 1.2% alcohol per volume. Importantly, there is no legislative definition of the concept of “advertising.” However, this concept has been defined broadly by judges. In particular, in a seminal decision of July 11, 2013, the Court of Justice of the European Union, whose decisions are binding on all EU Member States, including France, ruled that the concept of advertising expressly encompasses any form of representation, and includes indirect forms of representation, particularly where they are capable of influencing the economic behavior of consumers and, therefore, of affecting the competitor whose name or goods are referred to by the metatags. There is the use of metatags is a promotion strategy in that it aims to encourage the internet user to visit the site of the metatag user and to take an interest in its goods or services. By contrast, the registration of a domain name, as such, is not encompassed by that term; Case C-657/11 Belgian Electronic Sorting Technology NV v. Bert Peelaers and Visys NV, Judgment of 11 July 2013, ECLI:EU:C:2013:516, at paragraphs 34-60.Google Scholar
Article L.3323-4 Public Health Code.Google Scholar
Autorité de régulation professionnelle de la publicité or ARPP, available at <https://www.arpp.org/> (last visited May 11, 2022).+(last+visited+May+11,+2022).>Google Scholar
Article 3.3 Alcohol Recommendation, available at <https://www.arpp.org/nous-consulter/regles/regles-de-deontologie/alcool/ > (last visitted May 11, 2022).+(last+visitted+May+11,+2022).>Google Scholar
Loi n°2005-102 of 11 February 2005 (the Disability Act), JORF n°36, 12 February 2005. See Article L.3322-2 Public Health Code.Google Scholar
An Act of 2004 introduced Article L.2133-1 in the Public Health Code. An implementing decree was subsequently adopted in 2007, marking the entry into force of the new regulatory framework. Questions have been raised regarding the effectiveness of such health messages and the extent to which consumers become so accustomed to them that they no longer see them: Inserm (ed.), Agir sur les comportements nutritionnels: Réglementation, marketing et influence des communications de santé. Collection Expertise collective. EDP Sciences, 2017, XVI-413.Google Scholar
Dossou, G., Gallopel-Morvan, K., and Diouf, J.-F., “The Effectiveness of Current French Health Warnings Displayed on Alcohol Advertisements and Alcoholic Beverages,” European Journal of Public Health 27 (2017): 699.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loi n° 94-678 of 8 August 1994 sur la protection sociale complémentaire, JORF n°184, 10 August 1994.Google Scholar
Loi n° 2009-879 of 21 July 2009 portant réforme de l’hôpital et relative aux patients, à la santé et aux territoires, JORF n°0167, 22 July 2009.Google Scholar
Article L.3323-4 Public Health Code.Google Scholar
Loi n° 2005-157 of 23 February 2005 relative au développement des territoires ruraux, which modifies Article L.3323-4 Public Health Code.Google Scholar
Article 4 ter of the Bill.Google Scholar
Loi n° 2016-41 of 26 January 2016 de modernisation de notre système de santé JORF n°0022, 27 January 2016.Google Scholar
Article L.3323-3-1 Public Health Code.Google Scholar
Cass civ1, 3 July 2013, n°12-22633.Google Scholar
Court of appeal, Paris, 14 November 2019, n° 17/18804 ANPAA c/ Sociétés Heineken et Athem.Google Scholar
Court of appeal, Paris, 3 December 2020, n°17/14366 ANPAA c/ Association plus de sons, SAS Brasseries Kronenbourg.Google Scholar
Cass. crim., 15 May 2012, n° 11-83.686.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cass. civ. 1, 1st July 2015, n°14-17.368.Google Scholar
Cass. Civ 1, 20 May 2020, n°19-12.278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Court of Appeal, Paris, 15 June 2021, ANPAA c/ Société Kronenbourg.Google Scholar
Cass civ. 1, 22 May 2008, n°07-14984.Google Scholar
Court of appeal, Paris, 3 December 2020, n°17/14366, ANPAA c/ Association plus de sons, SAS Brasseries Kronenbourg.Google Scholar
Court of appeal, Paris 14 November 2019, n° 17/18804 ANPAA c/ Sociétés Heineken et Athem.Google Scholar
A. Rigaud and F. Lecas, «La régulation et l’encadrement de l’offre de boissons alcooliques,’ ADSP n°90, March 2015, p. 23.Google Scholar
Bourdillon, F., “La loi du 10 janvier 1991 relative à la lutte contre le tabagisme et l’alcoolisme. Génèse, élaboration et objectifs,” JDSAM, n°28, 2021, p. 8. See also A. Rigaud and F. Lecas, “La régulation et l’encadrement de l’offre de boissons alcooliques,” ADSP n°90, March 2015, p. 23.Google Scholar
Gallopel-Morvan, K., Spilka, S., Mutatayi, C. et al., “ France’s Évin Law on the Control of Alcohol Advertising: Content, Effectiveness and Limitations,” Addiction 112, supp. 1 (2017): 86–93; C. Mutatayi and S. Spilka, L’exposition au marketing en faveur de l’alcool chez les jeunes à 17 ans. Tendances 2019; n°135 : 1-4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Court of Appeal, Paris, 15 June 2021, ANPAA c/ Société Kronenbourg.Google Scholar
Cour des Comptes, La politique de prévention en santé. Les enseignemets tirés de l’analyse de trois grandes pathologies, November 2021, p. 100. See also Inserm (ed), Réduction des dommages associés à la consommation d’alcool. Collection Expertise collective. Montrouge: EDP Sciences, 2021. XII.Google Scholar
The daily newspaper Le Monde devoted two articles by S. Horel on this relationship, both published on 21 March 2022: “Un lobbyiste du vin au coeur du quinquennat d’Emmanuel Macron”0” (‘A wine lobbyist at the heart of Emmanuel Macron’s five-year presidency”), at 16; and “Un mandat de rêve pour le secteur alcoolier” (“a dreamlike mandate for the alcohol industry”), at 17.Google Scholar