§3.7 Direct exhortations to children – No 28

Point No 28 of Annex I ‘Including in an advertisement a direct exhortation to children to buy advertised products or persuade their parents or other adults to buy advertised products for them. This provision is without prejudice to Article 16 of Directive 89/552/EEC on television broadcasting.’ This ban includes putting pressure on children to buy a product directly or to persuade adults to buy items for them (‘pester power’). A recurrent claim made by many traders about this ban is that it can be difficult to distinguish marketing directed at children from marketing directed at other consumers. Similarly, it could sometimes be unclear whether a commercial practice includes a direct exhortation to children. Nevertheless, the check to determine whether a commercial practice falls under point 28 of Annex I must be carried out taking into account all the facts and circumstances of an individual case. The assessment may take into account various factors, such as the design of the marketing, the medium used to send the marketing, the type of language used, the presence of topics or characters that may in particular appeal to children, the presence of age-restrictions, providing direct links to making purchases etc. (263) A national enforcement authority or court is also not bound by the trader’s own definition of the target group for the commercial practice in question, although that definition may be taken into account. The assessment should also take into account the steps that the trader has taken in protecting minors from direct exhortation. Traders should adapt the marketing according to the consumers that could actually be reached by the practice, not only according to the intended target group. For example: — An online commercial practice involving a gameplaying community in which children dress virtual dolls invited children to ‘buy more’, ‘buy here’, ‘upgrade now’ and ‘upgrade to Superstar’. A national court banned such practices on the grounds that the statements were direct exhortations to children within the meaning of No 28 Annex I (264). — A concert organiser had advertised tickets for a Justin Bieber concert using phrases such as ‘Belibers – there are still RIMI-cards available at many stores. Run, jump on your bike or get someone to drive you’ and ‘Remember to also buy tickets for the Bieberexpress when you buy concert tickets at RIMI today’. A national court found this to be in breach of point No 28 of Annex I (265). — A national authority found that when a bank addressed direct marketing letter to children turning 10, this was an aggressive practice. In the letter, the children were welcomed to a branch office of the bank to obtain a personal Visa Electron card to mark their 10th birthday (266). — A national authority found a direct exhortation in a competition advertisement that was carried out using augmented reality (AR). The reader would download an AR application to their phone and use it to scan the panels of a story with video materials. The videos included numerous comic-like visual elements and sound effects. At the end of the story, the application showed a wheel of fortune where the reader had a chance to win tickets to a concert. If the reader was not lucky enough to win, a link popped up next to the wheel of fortune encouraging the reader to ‘check out the tickets’. In the same situation, virtual avatar encouraged the reader to ‘click here and get tickets’. According to the national authority, this was a direct invitation to purchase, especially because it was possible to purchase tickets from the associated link. The national authority also took the view that the AR content and advertisement was targeted at children were published in a comic magazine, itself aimed at a child audience (267). — A Member State court considered the issue of whether the display of a link to an online store constitutes a direct invitation to purchase. The court found that an advertisement addressing the viewer in second-person singular, using terms typical for children is targeting children in the first instance, and that such direct invitations to purchase are covered by point No 28 of Annex I even if the prices and characteristics of the products advertised are not displayed until the link is clicked (268). — In a similar case, the Member State court considered that indirect invitations to purchase are not subject to the prohibition in point No 28 of Annex I, and are defined as references to the intended use of the advertised products. In this case, advertising messages and links to the online store were accompanied by the message ‘If you also want a copy for yourself, you can also order it for your console using the links below’. It was found that providing information about a purchasing opportunity or inviting the user to virtual business premises is not inadmissible (269). — In 2021, an enforcement authority fined the operator of an online game and several online influencer agencies for the infringement of the prohibition in point No 28 of Annex I. The advertisements for the game were promoted across a range of online channels, encouraging children and adolescents to interact with an animal character by sending premium-rate SMS messages. Children were therefore directly invited to make purchases. In addition, the fine took into account misleading practices of the trader and influencers, as certain advertisements and promotions were not marked accordingly and misled consumers into viewing an advertisement (270). In 2013-2014, the Commission and national authorities, carried out a joint enforcement action on online games that offer possibilities to make purchases while playing (in-app purchases) and that are likely to appeal to or to be played by children, which is further discussed in section 4.2.9 (271). The authorities considered that point No 28 Annex I to the UCPD applies to games that are likely to appeal to children, not only those solely or specifically targeted at children. A game or application, and the exhortation contained within it, may be considered as directed at children within the meaning of point No 28 of Annex I if the trader could reasonably be expected to foresee that it is likely to appeal to children.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07