On 9th February, the Italian Institute for Advertising Self-Regulation  published the new regulation for Marketing Communications relating to food and beverages, the protection of children and their proper nutrition (full text available here).

In particular, these rules aim at integrating the provisions of the Code of Marketing Communication Self-Regulation which, in art.11, pays particular attention to the protection of children, who can be identified as individuals under 12 years old.

The new regulation focuses on the presentation of food products and beverages, affirming that it must avoid statements that could mislead children, including through omissions, ambiguities or hyperbolical overstatements, especially as regards the nutritional characteristics of the product.

Furthermore, Article 5 of the Regulation states that marketing communication must not stress the positive qualities of the nutritional aspects of foods or beverages that are dependent on fat, trans-fatty acids, sugar, sodium or salt, the over-intake of which is not recommended.

The regulation is in addition and without prejudice to the provisions of the digital chart, which constitutes the rules that social media influencers and vloggers must observe in order to ensure the distinctiveness of the commercial message.

Matteo Falcolini