Legislation on car advertising

The European Directive 1999/94/EC of 13 December 1999 relating to the availability of consumer information on fuel economy and CO₂ emissions in respect of the marketing of new passenger cars, has been transposed in English law through The Passenger Car (Fuel Consumption and CO₂ Emissions Information) Regulations 2001, that came into force on 21 November 2001.

Here are the excerpts of these Regulations according to which 99% of car adverts published in newspapers, magazines and billboards, would be illegal:

Interpretation
3.—(1) In these Regulations—
(…)
“promotional literature” means all printed matter used in the marketing, advertising and promotion of a new passenger car for sale or lease to the general public;
(…)

Dealers’ and Suppliers’ duties in respect of promotional literature
9.—(1) The supplier of a model of passenger car shall ensure that all promotional literature for that model which is published or made available by him complies with the requirements specified in Schedule 4.
(…)

SCHEDULE 4
REQUIREMENTS FOR PROMOTIONAL LITERATURE
(…)
5. All information on the official fuel consumption and official specific emissions of CO₂ shall be easy to read and easily understandable and shall be no less prominent than the main part of the information provided in the promotional literature.
(...)

The ’Davies Report’ of the European Parliament

Meanwhile, the European Parliament voted a resolution (the so-called ’Davies Report’) on 24 October 2007 in Strasbourg, proposing "that a minimum of 20% of the space devoted to the promotion of new cars through advertising, marketing literature, or point-of-sale displays in showrooms, should provide information on fuel economy and CO₂ emissions in an approved format."

MEPs’ resolution also suggested that "legislation requiring health warnings to be displayed on cigarette packs provides a useful example" that should be followed, and regarded "the A-G format used for comparing the energy efficiency of certain electrical products as a model for the information displays required". MEPs also proposed, among other measures, "that a binding code for advertising be introduced which outlaws false green claims."