The FINANCIAL — Despite the fact that a law on advertising exists in Georgia and it determines the Georgian National Communications Commission and local government as its regulators, the market still remains uncontrolled.
The problem mostly concerns outdoor advertising, because Tbilisi City Hall does not have effective control mechanisms, the industry remains more or less monopolized by Outdoor.ge, and lots of tobacco and alcohol advertisements remain located near schools, on central roads and streets. This could be connected to the fact that former and future deputies of the Parliament of Georgian appear to be the main lobbyists of the tobacco business.
“Despite the fact that restrictions are minor, even they are violated and we can find outdoor advertising of tobacco in streets using banners, kiosks with cigarette packaging displayed in the windows, and even in shops where the tills are covered in the logos of different tobacco brands,” said Kakha Ghvinianidze, founder and representative of Tobacco Control Alliance, which was founded by different non-governmental organizations, who demand a change in legislature according to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
In spite of the fact that in 2013 the Government established the Governmental Strategy for Tobacco Control and one of the main points was about prohibiting advertisements for tobacco, they remain in place.
The World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which was ratified by the Parliament of Georgia in 2005, highlights that banning all types of tobacco advertisements would decrease consumption. It recommends that countries ban all types of advertisements and possibilities for sponsorship. However, the Georgian Government has failed to implement these radical changes up until now. “You cannot find such a situation in neighbour countries, we have serious problems in the field which need urgent solving,” Ghvinianidze told The FINANCIAL.
Tobacco advertisements should not be allowed on TV or radio, or on the front cover of printed media, as established by the Georgian Law on Advertising. At the same time it is illegal to put outdoor advertising banners or lightboxes on avenues, bridges, squares, public transport or within a distance of 20 meters from the above-mentioned places.
There are places where almost all the banners and lightboxes are being used by cigarette companies, for example Melikishvili Street; Kostava Street; Tamarashvili Street; Chabua Amirejibi Highway (New Road); and both banks of the Mtkvari River, amidst others. All of the above-mentioned places are central areas, and thousands of people are using them every day. Several months ago a tobacco advertisement could be found on the bridge located on Chabua Amirejibi Highway near Heroes Square, but as it turns out, no companies were punished for that.
Tbilisi City Hall, as the regulator of all advertisements except radio or TV ones, has responded to only 31 instances of violation of the rule of advertising, committed by 28 different companies. A warning was used only once, in every other matter financial penalties were used as a sanction.
Violating the rules for ordering, producing and spreading advertisements as well as signboards, are punished with different amounts of financial fines, according to the Administrative Offences Code of Georgia. Mostly, matters are connected to the paragraphs 159-1, 159-3, 159-4, as stated in the official response from Tbilisi City Hall. Accordingly, a cumulative fine must be GEL 36 300.
The FINANCIAL asked Tbilisi City Hall about the places where the advertising of tobacco is prohibited, but the answer was that it is controlled by the law on advertising. Additionally, a letter was sent to Tbilisi Architecture Service by Tbilisi City Hall 11 days ago, but as of the time of publishing this article, there has been no answer. This means that there is no answer at the main regulator – Tbilisi City Hall.
“The tobacco industry is the main obstacle in the way of development. It is an absolutely new style and methodology of corruption; they find officials who were working in, or have direct or indirect financial interests concerning the field, and are cooperating in order to lobby the business,” Ghvinianidze told The FINANCIAL.
“Lobbyists are people who block the process. They were in parliament as well as in government, mostly in economic teams. We have identified 3 officials who we hope will change their position,” mentioned Ghvinianidze.
Mr. Ghvinianidze refused to name those officials, because the new parliament is going to be formed now as well as the government, but the alliance which he represents made an announcement months ago accusing the following individuals of lobbying the tobacco business: Mr. Zurab Tkemaladze (Deputy of the 8th Parliament of Georgia, Sector Economy And Economic Policy Committee – Chairman of the Committee); Giorgi Gakharia (Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Council, Deputy of the 9th Parliament of Georgia); and Nikoloz Mchedlishvili (Second Vice-Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce of Georgia).
Another point about uncensored advertisements is connected to the influence they can have on children, especially in regard to alcoholic drinks and tobacco. “According to our newest qualitative research, using a method which is highly approved in European countries, most of the children know where tobacco is sold near to their schools and living places; their attention is caught by the window displays of shops, advertising lightboxes, and even tills in shops branded with the logos of different tobacco companies. It does not matter whether an advertisement is placed 20 meters this way or that, they must be banned like in other countries,” Ghvinianidze told The FINANCIAL.
Tbilisi City Hall confirms that the 12-year contract of 2009 with Outdoor.ge and Smod Advertising is still valid, as reported by Transparency International in their report about the advertising market. This means that if an advertising company wants to erect a lightbox or banner they must ask Outdoor.ge for permission first. Despite the fact that City Hall, as well as the mayor himself, has several times commented on the topic and highlighted their negative attitude towards the exclusive contract with Outdoor.ge and market monopolization, it appears that nothing has changed significantly at all. In 2014, a new competition law was established, which absolutely prohibits any type of exclusive contracts with companies, yet Outdoor.ge still remains the ultimate decision-maker.
Another big advertising company, Alma, is renting places from Outdoor.ge and selling these to customers. Alma refused to answer the questions of The Financial, as for Outdoor.ge, they confirmed that they have never been penalized by City Hall, and they do not have any inner control mechanisms about the content, because their banners and billboards come up with the standards of law. They refused to answer the question about specific places where tobacco advertisements are allowed, and just referred to the Law on Advertising, where it is impossible to find specific places.
Television and radio advertisements are controlled in a more formalized way. From 2005 till now the Georgian National Communications Commission has confirmed 21 instances of a breach in the law as well as different standards of advertising in Georgia. 4 Companies were punished with a total GEL 125,000, in all other matters a warning was used as a sanction against legal entities.
One of the biggest telecommunication companies – Magticom – was punished with a GEL 90 000 fine for misleading product placement in an advertisement. Following this, a GEL 30 000 fine was for another of the largest mobile communications companies – Geocell, for giving inappropriate and misleading information to customers via an advertisement of theirs.
Another two financial penalties were issued for two broadcasting companies, Rustavi 2 and Imedi TV, for not adhering to the allowed amount of advertisements broadcast in an hour.
The FINANCIAL asked GNCC why a warning was used as the main sanction against companies.
“In the first instance of violating the law, companies are given a warning. According to the law, in the event they break the law again within a year, financial fines will be used, but companies are trying to avoid this. This explains why warnings are mostly used as a form of punishment,” Khatia Kurashvili, Head of the Press Service of the Georgian National Communications Commission, told The FINANCIAL.
Discussion about this post