ICC comments on Codex Discussion Paper on Advertising CL 2004/54-FL

The Codex Committee on Food labelling (CCFL) was established to focus on provisions on labelling applicable to all foods. Recently, CCFL has considered undertaking projects on advertising in relation to health and nutrition claims, including a definition of advertising, as complementary to labelling, in view of the terms of reference of the Committee. Regulations and standards for claims on food labels and claims in advertising are neither identical, nor need to be identical, to appropriately serve the communications go al. Advertising and labelling face very different constraints in terms of space, time, costs and objectives. Consequently, they are treated under different regulatory regimes at national level.

As it has been pointed out by participants in Codex themselves, "advertising" is already defined and regulated under national law, so this proposed initiative by Codex is perplexing. There are no deficiencies in current definitions which could or should be appropriately addressed by Codex. Moreover, ICC is seriously concerned that the proposed Codex work in the field of food advertising would undermine the successful and robust advertising self-regulatory system currently in place.

For the last 70 years, world business has worked through ICC to promote high standards of ethics by business self-regulation through the ICC international advertising and marketing codes. These codes have been implemented, referenced and endorsed by companies, associations, governments and national organizations across the world. The ICC codes govern all products, including food and beverage products. In the case of food and beverage products, the ICC International Code of Advertising Practice has been supplemented by a Framework on Responsible Food and Beverage Communications to provide further guidance for industry and self-regulatory bodies. The result, with the ICC Codes as a guide, is a dynamic system of advertising self-regulation which on a daily basis benefits consumers, governments and businesses by providing accessible, effective and flexible mechanisms to handle complaints and enforce the self-regulatory framework for advertising communications, including food and beverage advertising.