This draft envisages amendment of articles 19, 21 and 27 of the Law of Ukraine “On Advertising”.

In part one of Article 19 of the Law “On Advertising”, stipulating that it is forbidden to use images of minors consuming or using the products to be used only by adults, or prohibited for purchasing and consuming by minors, it is proposed to establish direct prohibition for advertising by minors of alcohol drinks, including low alcohol drinks, as well as tobacco products.

The proposed amendment to this article would not actually change regulations on advertising of alcohol and tobacco products with involvement of minors’ images, because according to the current legislation of Ukraine sale of alcohol drinks and tobacco products to minors (aged under 18) is prohibited. It should be mentioned that part one of article 19, in current wording, prohibits advertising of alcohol drinks and tobacco products using images of minors.

Amendments to the Article 21 will impose restrictions relating to advertising of alcohol and tobacco products, envisaged in this article, on low alcohol drinks and trade marks belonging to manufacturers of such products. Current wording of Article 21 prohibits advertising of tobacco products and alcohol drinks on TV and radio and establishes a series of restriction with regard to advertising of such products in printed press, outer advertisements, and content of such advertisements.

Prohibition of advertising of low alcohol drinks practically exists now, therefore the definition of alcohol drinks given in the Law “On State Regulation of Production and Circulation of Ethyl Alcohol, Cognac and Fruit Spirits, Alcohol Drinks and Tobacco Products”, which is basic law governing relations in this field, includes all the products containing over 1.2 % vol. of ethyl alcohol, except for beer.

At the same time prohibition of advertising of trademarks, the alcohol drinks and tobacco products are sold under, may significantly reduce advertising market, especially number of proposals from TV advertisers. This, in its turn, will put TV channels in a rather tough situation and, consequently, complicate the possibility of creating independent, commercially profitable TV channels.

Moreover, introduction of the proposed amendments will put a question whether it is allowed to advertise trademarks of producers of alcohol drinks or tobacco products, which manufacture also products, which are not prohibited for advertising. For example, under the trademark “Obolon” not only alcohol drinks and beer are sold, but also non-alcohol drinks.

Amendments to Article 27 of the Law “On Advertising” provide for increasing possible amounts of fines for violations of the legislation on advertising.