18/12/2025
The European Commission has launched an open consultation on the future of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) – the EU law that regulates television, streaming platforms, video-sharing services and, increasingly, influencer content. This may sound technical, but it has very real consequences for our everyday lives – especially for children’s health and rights.
Why this consultation matters
The AVMSD was last revised in 2018, before the explosion of influencer marketing, short-form video platforms, and highly targeted online advertising. Since then, the media environment has changed dramatically, while the evidence on the harmful impact of certain types of marketing has continued to grow. The Commission has explicitly highlighted concerns around:
- marketing of unhealthy food and drinks,
- alcohol advertising,
- tobacco and novel nicotine products, and
- the growing role of influencers in promoting these products online.
This consultation is one of the very few opportunities in the current EU political cycle to influence whether – and how – EU law will be updated to better protect the public, and children in particular, from harmful commercial practices across borders.
The Good Lobby’s engagement
In 2021, The Good Lobby joined a coalition of over 20 NGOs calling for the effective regulation of food marketing to children, particularly online. Today, we are responding to the Commission’s call for evidence on whether it should revise the AVMSD to better protect child health from harmful marketing – covering not only food, but also alcohol and novel tobacco products. In the wider de-regulatory context that The Good Lobby has documented, we see this consultation as a major opportunity. Stronger EU rules could help protect children from harmful commercial practices, align EU law with existing scientific evidence, and better uphold children’s rights – while also serving the long-term interests of the EU economy by preventing avoidable health harms. We are urging the Commission to move away from ineffective voluntary approaches and to ensure that EU media rules are aligned with the evidence showing that alcohol and unhealthy food marketing harm child health and children’s rights.
What’s at stake
Current EU rules rely heavily on voluntary industry commitments and narrowly defined protections, which have repeatedly failed to reduce children’s exposure to harmful marketing – especially online and in mixed-audience spaces. At the same time, EU law makes it difficult for individual Member States to act alone, because much of today’s media and advertising is cross-border by nature. This is why EU-level action matters. Stronger, evidence-based rules could:
- better protect children from exposure to harmful marketing,
- align EU law with existing public health and human rights standards,
- reduce regulatory loopholes exploited in digital and influencer marketing,
- and create a fairer, more coherent framework across the EU.
Doing nothing would mean missing a crucial opportunity to address well-documented harms in a rapidly evolving media ecosystem. EU consultations are not box-ticking exercises. They help shape the Commission’s evaluation, influence political priorities, and determine whether legislative change is proposed at all.
Have your say before 21 December
The consultation is open to civil society organisations, researchers, professionals, and individuals. Submitting a response does not require legal expertise – what matters is making clear that stronger protections are needed and why.
To support participation, below you can find the links to:
- a response template that Amandine Garde has produced, and
- practical guidance on how to submit your contribution.
You can adapt the text to reflect your organisation’s mission, expertise or national context.
Deadline: Sunday 21 December
Submit your response here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/15752-Audiovisual-media-services-evaluation-and-update-of-EU-rules_en