Day 047 - 07 Nov 94 - Page 15
1 not one now and it seems sensible to do so."
2
3 Companies are often concerned if their competitors or other
4 people make statements which they, themselves, regard as
5 being unreasonable. So it is in the interest of fair play
6 between companies, as well as fair play between companies
7 and their customers, that there is a sensible set of rules
8 which everyone follows and understands.
9
10 Q. So are you saying that it would not be true to say that you
11 wanted to preempt any thoughts the government might have to
12 bring in statutory regulations on such advertising?
13 A. As far as I am aware, there was no specific proposal
14 from the government at that time, nor indeed for some years
15 after that, that there should be legislation on the
16 subject. There virtually is not any legislation on the
17 subject still, today.
18
19 Q. But if you had not looked into that with the ITC, then is
20 it not quite likely that they would have come forward with
21 some suggestion for statutory regulations?
22 A. It is possible. The ITC, you will recall, has a
23 statutory power, anyway. It has the obligation under the
24 Broadcasting Act to codes and to make sure they are
25 implemented. So theirs is a statutory role. But the
26 detail of it is not acted upon.
27
28 If I can go back to the occasion when we encourage the ASA
29 and the ITC to do that, I remember writing to the
30 Department of Trade and Industry, saying we had done this
31 and showing them the codes we had recommended should be
32 followed, and I got a letter from the Minister, thanking me
33 for doing that and saying: "That is good. Now I do not
34 have to legislate. Now we do not have to use parliamentary
35 time on this. That has been taken care of."
36
37 I think you will see that that is one set of circumstances,
38 anyway, in which the move via a voluntary, self-regulatory
39 approach actually came before any move for government
40 legislation. It is not always that way, but it was in that
41 particular case.
42
43 Q. What year were your proposals on the environmental
44 advertising?
45 A. '89 and '90.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Was part the reason that came about because
48 companies were finding it attractive to claim environmental
49 awareness?
50 A. Yes, I think that is true; and consumers were very
51 responsive to suggestions that a certain product or a
52 certain process or a certain ingredient might be "green";
53 and one of the main reasons for concern was that words were
54 being used in a very loose way, so that a product might be
55 claimed to be "green" when, in fact, one ingredient had
56 been improved slightly, and one could not say that it was
57 now good for the environment, merely that it was slightly
58 less harmful. So we wanted to be sure that the terminology
59 used was as accurate as possible, that claims were made
60 that could be justified, and that the whole subject was not
