Mr. Jonathan White:

I am afraid I am not very familiar with the shape of the new audiovisual regulation, which is going to limit my answer somewhat but I apologise for that. The Senator made a point about the general need for harder law and regulation to serve a role in this space just like the role the self-regulatory bodies like the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK plays as well. That is necessary. The clear case for restricting certain kinds of advertising that we know creates things we do not want, which is more demand for the very things we need to phase out, needs to be complemented with an enforcement drive to address the enforcement gap I referred to in my opening statement. However, the problem with those harder law tools is that they effectively incentivise litigation responses from the companies that end up subject to them and that leads to the three-year court process; the complex arguments over the average consumer understanding; and it becomes quite hard. There is a need for clear principles on that which govern general environmental communication. The EU is overhauling its consumer law and there will be some of those instruments in there which could be developed upon in the member states.