The Stuttgart Regional Court has decided that regional advertising on national German TV channels is legally possible.
The decision, which implements a ruling of the European Court of Justice, clears the way to screen regionalised advertising campaigns on commercial TV channels, enabling broadcasters to tap into new customer groups.
The background is a lawsuit involving Austrian fashion retailer Fussl Modestraße and German broadcaster Seven.One Entertainment Group. The retailer wanted to broadcast its TV campaign on the ProSieben channel just in Bavaria, the federal German state neighbouring Austria. The ruling means this is now permitted.
“The addressability of TV advertising campaigns is an important growth factor for our sales. Today’s court ruling opens up new potential, because it enables us to serve the great demand for regionally addressable advertising starting in 2022,” said Wolfgang Link, member of the Executive Board of ProSiebenSat.1 Media and CEO Seven.One Entertainment Group. “At the same time, this judicial decision is an important step toward fair competitive conditions with internet platforms, which already have wide-ranging opportunities for regionalisation online.”
In February 2021, the European Court of Justice had already pointed out in the proceedings that the German ban of regional advertising on national TV channels could infringe the law as internet platforms are permitted to provide corresponding advertising services.
Thomas Wagner, Managing Director and Chief Sales Officer of Seven.One Entertainment Group, said: “Finally, regional advertising is also legal on TV. Television stands for rapid reach build-up and thus high levels of attention. Regional advertising on TV now opens up additional potential, for example for customers focused on individual federal states. On the basis of this groundbreaking court ruling, we can now offer a solution for this and bring TV advertising to the places where it is most effective for our customers. Together with our customer Fussl Modestraße, we will now implement an initial campaign in the short term.”
Ernst Mayr, Managing Director of Fussl Modestraße added: “It came as a surprise to us that a regional TV campaign in Bavaria used to be legally impossible. As a regional fashion company, however, this is extremely important for us and was a competitive disadvantage compared with national companies. Furthermore, we thought this unequal treatment of local media and international digital platforms was wrong, since television, for example, has an important social function and is important for the pluralism of our society. We strongly welcome the ruling and will soon be seen on Seven.One Entertainment Group’s channels.”
