Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-391/12

www.curia.europa.eu `Press and Information Court of Justice of the European Union PRESS RELEASE No 132/13 Luxembourg, 17 October 2013 Judgment in Case C-391/12 RLvS Verlagsgesellschaft mbH v Stuttgarter Wochenblatt GmbH The German prohibition on the publication of sponsored articles not identified by the term advertisement (Anzeige) is not, in principle, contrary to EU law Since the EU legislature has not yet adopted legislative provisions on this point for the written press, the Member States retain the power to legislate in this area In Germany, almost all regional (Land) laws governing the press and media require publishers to include the term advertisement (Anzeige) for any publication for remuneration in their periodicals, unless it is already evident from the arrangement and layout of the publication that it is an advertisement. In a dispute involving two German newspapers, the Stuttgarter Wochenblatt and the GOOD NEWS advertiser1 , the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice, Germany) has asked whether that prohibition is compatible with the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive2 . The Stuttgarter Wochenblatt wishes to see GOOD NEWS3 prohibited from publishing sponsored articles not identified by the term advertisement (Anzeige). The Stuttgarter Wochenblatt objects to the publication in the June 2009 issue of GOOD NEWS of two sponsored articles. The first, entitled VfB VIP-Geflüster (VfB VIP Gossip), about prominent guests who attended the final game of the season...