NEW RULES TO RESTRICT ADVERTISEMENT OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES IN BRAZIL
Author:
Maurício Maleck Coutinho, Veirano Advogados
The Brazilian government has launched a National Policy on Alcohol, which fights not only alcoholism, but also social problems associated with alcohol consumption such as traffic accidents (drinking and driving) and violence.
This policy includes measures such as the creation of new rules regarding alcoholic beverages advertising, restrictions on the location of the retail stores, and intensification of public services that help people with alcoholic problems.
One of the first government actions was the definition of “alcoholic beverage” as the one that has more than 0.5 Gay-Lussac (GL) degree. This is the wording of Presidential Decree Nº 6,117/2007, which also embraces beers, wines and coolers.
As foreseen in Law Nº 9,294/1996 , only drinks that contain more than 13º GL could be classified as alcoholic beverages and, thus, admit intense advertising limitations.
The point is that aforesaid Decree indicates that the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) would be in charge of creating these new rules concerning advertising of alcoholic beverages.
In this regard, ANVISA’s resolution would state, for example, that a beer advertisement is allowed to be broadcasted only between 8 pm to 8 am. Moreover, this resolution would decide on the creation of educational propaganda about the damages caused by the improper and excessive ingestion of alcoholic beverages.
However, according to the Federal Constitution, ANVISA does not have power to regulate advertising matters; only the National Congress has to do so. Therefore, any ruling created by ANVISA with regard to advertising issues would be unconstitutional.
In view of this, the government is deciding on the best legal alternative to take to implement the rules desired by ANVISA, so to enforce them without violating the Brazilian Constitution. While this situation is pending, alcoholic beverage is the one which has more than 13º GL and the abovementioned restrictions are only applicable for this kind of drink.
In the meanwhile, government educational campaigns are being shown on TV, alerting people for the terrible problems caused by the inappropriate consumption of alcohol.
