Today, 25 May, the European Commission (DG JUST) published a long awaited study on the impact of online marketing on children’s behavior.

The study was undertaken to inform the development of an updated Guidance document for the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) and feed into the general review (officially launched two weeks ago) of the key aspects of EU consumer and marketing law. The results of the study have also been used to justify a restriction on product placement in children’s programmes in the EU Commission's proposed revision to the Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive – also released today.