EASA includes self-regulatory organisations (SROs) similar to the ASA from 19 of the 25 Member States of the European Union.

EASA members resolve cross-border complaints on the basis of mutual recognition and the Country of Origin principle. In 2004, EASA resolved six complaints from other member states and consideration of four other cross-border complaints was ongoing at year-end. Similarly, the ASA referred 90 complaints to SROs in other member states for adjudication. Of these, 80 were resolved: 19 upheld, 8 not upheld, and 53 transferred to the appropriate regulatory body in the country of origin. The ten other referrals remain outstanding. For example, complaints about commercial e-mails addressed to UK consumers by the Dublin based low-cost airline Ryanair were resolved by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland. ASAI ruled that e-mails that quoted prices exclusive of taxes and other charges were misleading. This ruling is in line with the ASA’s policy that applies to low-cost airline ads in UK media.

An Unfair Commercial Practices Directive will harmonise consumer protection laws across the Single Market. EASA has argued that effective advertising self-regulation should be recognised as the ‘established means’ for implementing the new rules. The ASA has argued that the implementation of the Directive in the United Kingdom should make use of the ASA system.

May 2004 saw the enlargement of the European Union. Of the ten new Member States, four were already members of EASA. The ASA has been active in helping to establish SROs in the other six new Member States. SRO staff from Poland visited the ASA for training and ASA staff joined roadshows in Warsaw, Prague and Vilnius to help in the development of self-regulation in Poland, the Czech Republic and the Baltic States. ASA staff took part in workshops on copy advice and alcohol advertising in Paris and Warsaw, designed to strengthen the self-regulatory system.

The Chairman of EASA during 2004 was the ASA Director General, Christopher Graham. A major project for the year was the development and adoption of a Self-Regulation Charter – a best practice commitment signed by advertisers, agencies and media alike at a special Self-Regulation Summit in Brussels in June.

Christopher Graham was invited to give evidence to the European Economic and Social Council who were conducting a study of self-regulation and co-regulation in the single market. The ECOSOC report concluded: “Co-regulation and self-regulation offer many advantages: they remove barriers to the single market, they simplify rules, they can be implemented flexibly and quickly, they free up legislative capacity and ensure the co-responsibility of the stakeholders involved.”