EU bans tobacco ads, sponsorships for sport, including F1 |
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Tue, 02 Aug 2005 00:35
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LONDON: Sponsorship and advertisement deals between tobacco companies and sports organisations have ended in European Union countries following a ban such sponsorships. The ban covers Formula One and snooker events, which have been the largest beneficiaries of tobacco advertisements.
In U.K. alone, the deals for Formula One are estimated to be over 70 million pounds annually. Motor racing and snooker organisations in the U.K. have been given two years' grace period to find alternative modes of funding. The country's Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act comes into being on Monday. The EU has enacted legislation prohibiting tobacco advertisements and sponsorships among its member-states.
Anti-tobacco activists in the U.K have calculated that the ban can result in a 2.5 per cent drop in the number of deaths annually caused by smoking, saving some 3,000 lives. The country has banned advertising of tobacco products on TV since 1990s, while advertising in shops was banned in December 1999 and sponsorships in 2003. The U.K. act also bans advertising by tobacco companies on branded commodities such as clothes and hats and in pub umbrellas.
| The EU has banned tobacco advertising in the print media, on radio and over the internet and tobacco sponsorship of cross-border events or activities.
The Hungarian Grand Prix Sunday was the last race in an EU country featuring tobacco advertising. The proponents of the law are not sure how the enactment will prevail on sporting events outside the EU.
Anti-smoking campaign group Ash welcomed the ban but a spokesperson said sports events sponsored by tobacco firms outside the EU could still be televised the EU countries.
U.K.'s minister for sports Richard Caborn has assured FIA president Max Moseley that it would not be penalised until it brings in a voluntary ban ending tobacco sponsorships in October 2006.
Meanwhile Ferrari said it will defy the ban making use of a legal loophole. The company said it will carry Marlboro's livery at its home Grand Prix in Monza, because the event can be defined as national rather than cross-border. Michael Schumacher will have the Marlboro logo.
Hungary too has said future Formula One races in the country will be exempted from the ban. " We are saying that it isn't a sports event but an event of outstanding economic significance," said a spokesperson for the economy ministry. The country says more than the Formula One event, it is the country's hotel and tourism industry that is benefiting out of the Formula One event.
EU has reacted to the Hungarian defiance and Markos Kyprianou, EU's health commissioner, said: "I would remind the [Hungarian] government that the costs of treating tobacco-related illnesses are a drain on public funds."
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