Menu
  • En-Lt

UAB JCDecaux Lietuva
ADVERTISING CONTENT POLICY

 

  1. GENERAL PROVISIONS

    1. This Advertising Content Policy (hereinafter referred to as the “Policy”) of UAB JCDecaux Lietuva (registration No. 110587629, registered office address Vilniaus g. 31, Vilnius, (hereinafter referred to as the “Advertising Service Provider” or the “Advertising Broadcaster”) establishes requirements for broadcasted advertising content that must be followed in order to avoid harmful advertising content that is contrary to mandatory legal provisions, good morals, and public order and incites national, ethnic, racial, religious, sexual or other hatred and promotes bullying.

    2. The policy has been prepared in accordance with the Law on Advertising of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter referred to as “RL”), Law on Public Information of the RL, Law on Prohibition of Unfair Commercial Practices Relating to Consumers of the RL, Law on Protection of Minors from the Negative Impact of Public Information, Law on Equal Opportunities of the RL, Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men of the RL, Law on Elections of the Members of Seimas of the RL, the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union, Civil Code of the RL, and other legislation of the RL and the EU, which regulate the content of publicly broadcasted advertising of various types.

    3. The provisions established in the Policy must be followed when concluding all agreements on the provision of advertising services. By concluding the agreement, the Client confirms that he/she/it is acquainted in detail with the provisions of the Advertising Content Policy, these provisions are clearly and unambiguously understood and acceptable to him/her/it.

    4. The Advertising Service Provider has the right to unilaterally, without additional explanations or sanctions, refuse to broadcast advertising material, the content of which contradicts the provisions of this Policy.

 

  1. TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

    1. The terms and definitions used in the policy have the following meanings.

      1. Advertising Service Provider or Advertising Broadcaster means UAB JCDecaux Lietuva (registration No. 110587629, registered office address Vilniaus g. 31, Vilnius) which, on the basis of an agreement on the provision of advertising services, provides advertising broadcasting services in accordance with the requirements applied for advertising content established in laws and other legislation.

      2. Client means a natural or legal person to whom the Advertising Broadcaster provides advertisement broadcasting services in public spaces.

      3. Agreement means an agreement on the provision of advertisement broadcasting services concluded between the Advertising Broadcaster and the other party.

    2. Other terms used in the Policy shall be understood as defined by law. In the event that different legislation provides definitions of identical terms, the Advertising Service Provider has the right to choose the definition of the term most appropriate to the specific situation.

 

  1. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR ADVERTISING CONTENT

    1. Advertising content must be decent, honest, and clearly identifiable.

    2. The purpose of broadcasted information must be clearly perceived by the consumers without misleading them, otherwise the broadcasted content is considered to be surreptitious advertising which is prohibited by law (Article 8 of the Law on Advertising).

    3. If it is probable that consumers of the advertisement may not recognize the advertising in the media due to the form of its presentation, such advertising must be marked with the word “Advertisement”.

    4. The content of the advertisement must not violate the requirements established by the Law on the State Language. The Advertising Service Provider reserves the right to assess the compliance of the advertising content requested by the Client with the requirements established by the Law on the State Language and, accordingly, to refuse to broadcast content that contradicts the requirements of the law.

    5. Advertising that promotes discrimination and defamation, incite aggression, cause panic, or shows behaviour that is dangerous to health/environment is not permitted.

    6. The advertising content must not infringe copyrights and the right to the image of a natural person and not to disclose private information without the consent of a third party.

    7. The content of advertising must comply with the moral standards of society and not violate people’s honour and dignity, religious and other symbols.

    8. The advertising content must not contradict to the provisions of Article 19 of the Law on Public Information of the RL prohibiting the publication of information which:

      1. incites to violate the sovereignty of the RL by using coercion, i.e., incites to change its constitutional system, encroach on its independence or violate the integrity of the territory;

      2. promotes or incites terrorist offenses;

      3. spreads war propaganda, incites war or hatred, mocks, contemns, incites to discriminate, use violence, use physical force against a group of persons or a person belonging to such a group on grounds of age, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, nationality, citizenship, language, origin, social status, disability, religion, belief, or opinion;

      4. distributes, promotes, or advertises pornography and promotes or advertises sexual services and sexual perversion;

      5. promotes and/or advertises harmful habits, narcotic or psychotropic substances and the use of these substances;

      6. misinforms, slanders, insults, humiliates;

      7. violates the presumption of innocence.

      8. The Advertising Service Provider reserves the right to refuse to broadcast other types of harmful information that, in its opinion, is contrary to good morals and would adversely affect JCDecaux’s business reputation.

  2. PROHIBITION OF ADVERTISING OF DISCRIMINATORY CONTENT

    1. In the advertisement of products, goods, and services it is prohibited to denigrate, disparage, or restrict the rights or grant privileges based on sex, race, nationality, citizenship, language, origin, social status, faith, belief, opinion, age, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, and religion and to form public opinion by specifying that a person is superior or inferior to another because of these characteristics.

    2. When advertising the products, goods, and services, it must be ensured that humiliation, contempt or restriction of rights or the granting of privileges on the grounds of person’s sex is not expressed or that public opinion that one sex is superior to the other is not being formed.

    3. In advertisements, it must be ensured that human dignity is respected and persons are not being humiliated or disparaged because of their gender. Advertisement must not form gender stereotypes, as they can lead to discriminatory behaviour.

 

  1. PROHIBITION OF ADVERTISING CONTENT THAT HAS NEGATIVE IMPACT ON MINORS

    1. Advertising content may not include content encouraging children to purchase or persuade parents or other adults to purchase the products advertised to them.

    2. Advertising must not adversely affect the mental health, physical, mental, or moral development of minors and must meet the following requirements:

      1. it must not directly encourage minors to purchase or rent or to choose a product or service by taking advantage of their inexperience and trustworthiness;

      2. it must not directly encourage minors to persuade their parents or other persons to purchase the advertised goods or services;

      3. it must not form the opinion of minors that the use of certain services or goods will give them a physical, psychological or social advantage over their peers;

      4. it must not take the advantage of minors’ trust in their parents, teachers, or other persons;

      5. it must not show minors in dangerous situations where there is no public interest.

    3. Paragraph 1 of Article 4 of the Law on the Protection of Minors from the Negative Impact of Public Information establishes that the following public information has a negative impact on minors:

      1. if the information contains violence and encourages aggression and disrespect for life;

      2. if the information encourages the destruction of or damage to property;

      3. when the body of a dead, dying, or severely injured person is shown in close-up, except where such an action is necessary for the identification of the person;

      4. if the information is of an erotic nature;

      5. if the information causes fear or terror;

      6. if the information is encouraging or offering to gamble and play other games that give the impression of easy win;

      7. if the information promotes dependence on and the use, production, distribution, or acquisition of narcotic, toxic, or psychotropic substances, tobacco, alcohol, and other substances which are or may be used for the purposes of intoxication;    

      8. if the information promotes self-harm or suicide or details the means and circumstances of suicide;

      9. if the information positively evaluates criminal activity or idealizes criminals;

      10. if the information is related to crime modelling;

      11. if the information promotes behaviour humiliating human dignity;

      12. if the information includes content which is intended to mock or despise a person or group of people on grounds of their nationality, race, sex, origin, disability, sexual orientation, social status, language, religion, beliefs, opinion, etc.;

      13. when staged paranormal phenomena are demonstrated, giving the impression of the reality of these phenomena;

      14. if the information is promoting the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of minors and sexual intercourse of minors;

      15. if the information promotes sexual intercourse;

      16. if the information despises family values and promotes the concepts of marriage and family formation which differ from those specified in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania and the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania;

      17. when obscene expressions, words, or obscene gestures are used;

      18. when it is being advised on how to manufacture, acquire or use explosives, narcotic or psychotropic substances or other items that pose a threat to life or health;

      19. if the information promotes poor dietary, hygiene and physical inactivity habits;

      20. if mass hypnosis sessions that target a media audience are demonstrated.

 

  1. PROHIBITION OF ADVERTISING CONTENT RELATED TO UNFAIR COMMERCIAL PRACTICES

    1. The content of the advertisement may not contradict the Law on the Prohibition of Unfair Commercial Practices Relating to Consumers of the Republic of Lithuania, which establishes the prohibition of unfair commercial practices that manifest as misleading or aggressive activities.

    2. The following are considered to be misleading commercial practices:

      1. an indication of the mark of reliability or quality or equivalent mark, where the right to use such a mark has not been granted;

      2. advertising of a product similar to a product of another manufacturer in order to deliberately mislead consumers that the product was manufactured by the first manufacturer;

      3. comparative advertising;

      4. the creation of a pyramid scheme, where the consumer pays for the opportunity to be remunerated primarily for the inclusion of other consumers in that scheme and not for the sale or use of the products; the use or promotion of such a scheme.

    3. Commercial practice is presumed to be aggressive if, for example, it directly encourages the children to buy or convince parents or other adults to buy the products advertised to them.

 

  1. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STATE LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT FOR ADVERTISING CONTENT

    1. Informative texts in the advertisement should be written correctly in the Lithuanian language (must comply with the requirements of grammar, punctuation, etc. of the Lithuanian language established by the resolutions of the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language).

    2. In the event that the Client wishes that public written and audio information in advertising elements would be expressed in foreign languages in addition to the state language, such a written and audio information in other languages must not be more detailed and its font size must not be larger than the font size of the text written in the state language.

    3. Approved names of foreign companies, trademarks and titles of works are not translated into Lithuanian. However, in addition to trademarks written in English, it is required to provide information on goods and services in Lithuanian. 

 

  1. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CONTENT OF POLITICAL ADVERTISING

    1. Political advertising is prohibited if its dissemination is in conflict with the Constitution and other laws.

    2. During the political campaign, political advertising must be marked in accordance with the procedure established by law by indicating the source of funds and it must be clearly distinguished from other information disseminated.

    3. The text “Political advertising” or “Election agitation” in a political advertisement must be printed in the same direction as the text of the political advertisement and be clearly visible.

    4. The advertisement must indicate that the political advertisement has been or will be paid from the political campaign’s account of a specific independent person participating in the political campaign.

    5. The Law on Elections of the Members of Seimas of RL prohibits election agitation, regardless of its methods, forms and means, 30 hours before the start of elections and on the day of elections until the end of voting, except for external political advertising affixed before the beginning of this prohibition. The obligation to remove external political advertising before the start of the period when election campaigning is prohibited rests with the person who posted the external political advertising. The Client shall be deemed to have published the advertisement specified in this paragraph of the Policy.

    6. According to the Law on Elections of the Members of Seimas of RL, the installation and dissemination of external political advertising is prohibited:

      1. on buildings where state government, law enforcement, or other state and municipal institutions and bodies operate;

      2. in and on public vehicles used by state or municipal enterprises, except in cases where advertising space or video broadcasting equipment is owned or transferred to third parties over whom state or municipal enterprises have no direct or indirect decisive influence;

      3. on the roads and in their sanitary protection zones, on and near the streets, where it may obstruct technical traffic regulations, road signs, impair visibility, dazzle or distract road users and thus endanger them; it is also prohibited to use advertising imitating road signs;

      4. on sculptures and monuments;

      5. at a distance of 50 meters around the building where the voting premises are;

      6. without the consent of the owner of the land, buildings, or other objects on or in which advertising is to be installed;

      7. external political advertising in protected areas and immovable cultural objects and in their territories is permitted only in coordination with the state institution responsible for the protection of cultural objects and the institution authorized by the founder of the protected area.

 

  1. ADVERTISING REQUIREMENTS FOR SPECIFIC GOODS AND SERVICES

    1. The laws of the Republic of Lithuania prohibit the advertising of the following goods and services:

      1. alcohol advertising (Law on Alcohol Control of the RL);

      2. advertising of tobacco products (Law on the Control of Tobacco, Tobacco Products and Related Products of the Republic of Lithuania);

      3. public advertising of weapons and ammunition (Law on Advertising);

      4. advertising of gambling, except for the names, trademarks and types of gambling of the companies organizing gambling activities (Law on Gambling of the RL);

      5. advertising of partially energy drinks (Article 14 of the Law on Advertising).

 

  1. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CONTENT OF FOOD ADVERTISING

    1. It is prohibited to mention the properties of the food that it does not have, the therapeutic or prophylactic properties (useful for humans) and other properties if the provision of such information does not comply with the requirements established by law.

    2. The special characteristics of the food may not be specified if they are present in all similar products.

    3. Advertising of infant formulas is permitted only in publications and scientific publications intended for healthcare professionals and in accordance with the procedure established by laws.

    4. Food advertising must state that a food product is genetically modified when it is so labelled or its ingredients are of such type.

 

  1. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CONTENT OF ADVERTISING OF MEDICINAL PRODUCTS AND FOOD SUPPLEMENTS

    1. The Law on Public Information of the RL and the Law on Pharmacy of the RL establish the following prohibitions:

      1. Advertising of prescription-only medical services and prescription drugs is prohibited.

      2. The provisions of the Law on Pharmacy of the RL are applied to the advertising of other medicinal products.

      3. Advertising of food supplements must state “Food supplement”.

    2. Advertisements must not deter people from getting vaccinated or spread information against vaccines.

      1. Advertisements claiming that vaccination is unsafe or harmful to human health and may result in death or injury are prohibited.

      2. Advertisements of vaccines that contradicts official information about vaccination published by healthcare institutions, the World Health Organization (WHO) or the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are prohibited.

 

  1. REQUIREMENTS FOR ADVERTISING OF HEALTHCARE SERVICES AND MEDICAL TOOLS (DEVICES)

    1. It is prohibited to use the patient’s name, surname or image in the advertising of health care services and medical tools (devices) and to make references to the recommendations of health care institutions, health care professionals, or their professional organizations.

 

  1. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE ADVERTISING OF COSMETIC PRODUCTS

    1. Claims made in the advertising of cosmetic products concerning the cosmetic product must be objective, not demean or diminish the competitors, and must not mislead as to the ingredients lawfully used.

    2. Claims concerning the specific benefits of a product must not be used where those benefits must exist in order to comply with minimum legal requirements.

    3. The statement “Not tested on animals” or the leaping bunny label illustrating it must not be used.

    4. The statement “without parabens” must not be used.

    5. Statements such as “Free of…”, “Does not contain...” are not allowed when they are misleading and rely on alleged negative opinion on the safety of a substance or group of substances. Statements such as “Free of…”, “Does not contain...” can be used for information purposes in order to provide the consumer with relevant information on the basis of which he/she choses the product.

    6. Product effectiveness claims cannot be illustrated using “before” and “after” images processed with the aid of image editing programs if the displayed image does not reflect the actual effect of the product.

    7. The use of any claims and visual or other signs which imply, figuratively or otherwise, that the cosmetic product has characteristics or functions which it does not have is prohibited.

 

  1. REQUIREMENTS FOR ADVERTISING FINANCIAL, INSURANCE, AND INVESTMENT SERVICES AND PENSION ACCUMULATION ACTIVITIES

    1. The advertising content of financial services, insurance services, and other similar services (products) must comply with the requirements established in the following laws of the Republic of Lithuania:

      1. Law on Securities of the Republic of Lithuania;

      2. Law on the Markets of Financial Instruments of the Republic of Lithuania;

      3. Law on Collective Investment Undertakings of the Republic of Lithuania;

      4. Law on Collective Investment Undertakings Intended for Informed Investors of the Republic of Lithuania;

      5. Law on Pension Accumulation of the Republic of Lithuania;

      6. Law on Supplementary Voluntary Pension Accumulation of the Republic of Lithuania;

      7. Law on Accumulation of Occupational Pensions of the Republic of Lithuania;

      8. Law on Consumer Protection of the Republic of Lithuania;

      9. Law on Consumer Credit of the Republic of Lithuania;

      10. Law on Credit Related to Real Estate of the Republic of Lithuania;

      11. Law on Insurance of the Republic of Lithuania;

      12. Law on Financial Institutions of the Republic of Lithuania;

      13. Law on Insurance of Deposits and Liabilities to Investors of the Republic of Lithuania;

      14. Law on Concentrated Financing of the Republic of Lithuania;

      15. other laws.

    2. The requirements of the laws set forth in paragraph 14.1 of the Policy are detailed and explained in the Guidelines for Advertising Financial Services (https://www.lb.lt/lt/lietuvos-banko-pozicijos-ir-gaires (they are constantly changed/ updated)) approved by the decision No. 241-75 of the Director of the Supervisory Authority of the Bank of Lithuania of 5 September 2012.

    3. The Client undertakes to take an active interest in the explanations provided for in the Guidelines for Advertising Financial Services of the Supervisory Authority of the Bank of Lithuania regarding the requirements for the content of financial services advertising and to comply with the mandatory requirements established by law.

 

  1. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE ADVERTISING OF VEHICLES

    1. Vehicle advertisements must include fuel consumption and CO2 emission rates. This information should meet the following requirements:

      1. it must be easy to read and no more prominent than the main part of the information in the promotional text;

      2. it must be easy to understand at a glance;

      3. official fuel consumption data for all the different car models mentioned in the advertisement should be provided.

 

  1. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE ADVERTISING OF OTHER SPECIFIC PRODUCTS

    1. The following advertising of specific products are prohibited:

      1. advertising of biocidal products that do not comply with EU laws;

      2. advertising (for commercial purposes) of decoders, other devices or software that would allow unauthorized access to protected services;

      3. advertising of dangerous chemical substances and mixtures (preparations) and products containing them by violating the requirements for their advertising;

      4. advertising which violates the advertising requirements set out in the Regulation (EC) No. 1107/2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market (unauthorized plant protection products may not be advertised).

 

  1. DATA PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS FOR ADVERTISING CONTENT

    1. Pursuant to Article 6 of the GDPR, personal data (image, name, surname, profession) may be used in advertising only with the consent of the person or in cases where a contract is concluded with this person.

    2. A photograph (or part thereof), portrait or other image of a natural person may be reproduced, sold, displayed, or printed and the person may be photographed only with his/her consent.

    3. In order not to violate the rights of a person, to protect his/her honour and dignity, the collection, publication, and use of images of a person for the purpose of advertising it in the media without the consent of that person is prohibited.

 

  1. LIABILITY

    1. The Advertising Service Provider is responsible for approving, periodically reviewing and, if necessary, updating this Policy.

    2. The implementation of the provisions of the Policy must be ensured by the Advertising Service Provider and the Client.

    3. The Advertising Service Provider has the right to submit to the Client its comments on the advertising content that does not comply with the provisions of this Policy and recommendations regarding the respective corrections of the advertising content requested by the Client.

 

  1. FINAL PROVISIONS

    1. This Policy shall enter into force on the date of its approval and shall remain in force until it is amended, supplemented and/or repealed.

    2. Any amendments or additions to this Policy shall be effective from the date of approval of the Advertising Service Provider, unless a different effective date is specified in the annexes and/or amendments themselves.

    3. Any amendments and additions to this Policy are publicly available on the website of the Advertising Service Provider, i.e., JCDecaux Lietuva, at www.jcdecaux.lt