Werbefreiheit und Werbebeschränkungen

Despite its crucial importance for the European internal market commercial communication is subject to numerous restrictions at both national and EU level. This doctorate thesis discusses the criteria to be applied when reviewing the compatibility of restrictions upon freedom of advertising with EC law. The study focuses on the fundamental freedoms of movement of goods and to provide services as well as on the Community fundamental rights of communication. Particular emphasis is laid on the standards drawn from the European Convention on Human Rights and from the guarantees of communication freedoms enshrined in the German and the Greek Constitution; the latter go beyond the minimum standards for the protection of commercial communication afforded by the ECHR. The author – who worked for many years as Research Assistant to Prof. Dr. V. Skouris, President of the ECJ – dedicates the major part of his comparative analysis to a critical approach of the relevant case-law. He highlights the interactions and nuances as far as the protection of freedom of advertising in the European multi-level system is concerned and boosts the discussion on the convergence of the limits to freedom of advertising under EC law and fundamental rights.