Delay, delay … The Commission has initiated an infringement procedure against 23 Member States, including France, for not having implemented the so-called AVM (Audiovisual Media Services) directive, adopted on 14 November 2018. All had until September 19, 2020 to transpose the text (including the implementing decrees) into their national law and notify it to the Commission. Only four Member States met the agreed 21-month deadline. For once, Hungary is one of the good students, along with the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.
The European Union boasts of its “values”, but when it comes to defending the diversity of European culture on the Net, governments are dragging their feet. The aim of the AVMS directive is to introduce regulation not only on the online services of television channels but also on VOD platforms (MyTF1, 6Play, Netflix, Amazon Prime Videos, CanalPlay, etc.), as well as on the platforms of video sharing (YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Facebook…).
Rebalance competition between TV channels and platforms
For VOD, the directive sets up an obligation to offer the public a range of European programs of at least 30% and to promote them. The text allows the passage to re-establish a little balance between the traditional television channels (on which are based very many obligations) while the American online platforms have none … “We want a level playing field for all media players ”, recalled Margrethe Vestager, Commissioner for Competition, Vice-President of the Commission. Member States could, under certain conditions, require media service providers to contribute to the financing of the production of French and European works of fiction.
The AVMS Directive also introduces measures to protect minors against pornography, gratuitous violence or the use of their data for the purpose of canvassing or targeted advertising. “These rules provide better protection for all viewers, particularly the most vulnerable such as minors, promote cultural diversity and preserve media pluralism. However, they must not remain a dead letter, but be applied so that these advantages become a reality, warns Thierry Breton, the Commissioner for the Single Market and Digital. I call on Member States to implement them without further delay in order to ensure a safer, fairer and more diverse online environment. ”
Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and the UK have all received a letter of formal notice. They have two months to respond.
The government, as a matter of urgency, made Parliament adopt an amendment to the DDADUE bill empowering the government to legislate by ordinance to transpose a set of 18 (!) European directives, including the AVMS directive. On November 18, the bill was definitively adopted by the deputies. But there is still the stage of implementing decrees… This can take a long time.
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