BRUSSELS: Europe's ad industry is fuming following a vote by lawmakers requiring 20% of car advertising content, print or broadcast, to be set aside for information on CO2 emission levels.
Marketers and their agencies argue that such restrictions could "disincentivise" automakers from advertising and damage businesses that rely on ads for revenue.
Comments an outraged Angela Mills Wade, executive director of the European Publishers Council: "Advertising revenues are essential to the proper functioning of the private media - they fund TV programmes, the press, radio and internet content.
"We already have rules in place to control misleading claims as well as detailed self-regulatory guidelines on how to handle environmental issues."
The EPC will now lobby for an EU probe into the financial impact on businesses of the new law.
The bill was sponsored British MEP Chris Davies who argues: "It is time to insist that advertisements give car buyers more details of the fuel economy and emissions performance of vehicles on sale.
"The information should be upfront and bold, not buried away in the small print."
Data sourced from MediaGuardian.co.uk; additional content by WARC staff
