ESPOL, European School of Political and Social Sciences, Mars 2025;
TO: EU POLICY MAKERS, FROM: ESPOL MASTER STUDENTS
Anna INISAN, Alyah TALBI, Apolline TRANCHAND, Dana JABER, Fadoua AZIZI, Héloïse BASCOU, Naeri HONG, Nasiba EBRAHIMI, Sofia CENTRONI and Sakadatevy LAO.
Executive summary:
Alcohol advertising in Europe significantly influences youth drinking behaviour, despite existing regulations. Digital marketing, especially through social media, has increased exposure among vulnerable groups, contributing to early alcohol initiation and long-term health risks (WHO, 2024). Research shows that over 30 % of European teenagers report regular alcohol use, while one in four deaths among young adults (aged 20–24) is alcohol-related (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2018).
Alcohol consumption also hinders progress on 14 out of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), exacerbating health inequalities and economic burdens (IOGT-NTO, 2024). Furthermore, the alcohol industry’s lobbying efforts continue to weaken regulatory enforcement (Petticrew et al., 2017). To address these issues, this memo aims to assess existing shortcomings and provide actionable solutions. These include the implementation of mandatory health warning labels (Movendi International, 2017), a ban on social media alcohol advertising (Anderson, 2009), as also reported by WHO, reveals digital alcohol marketing is poorly regulated in Europe, with only 14 countries enforcing online bans (WHO, 2021), the development of an international regulatory framework inspired by tobacco control policies (Berdzuli et al., 2020), and stricter limitations on industry lobbying activities (Petticrew et al., 2017). Urgent policy action is required to protect youth and mitigate the social and economic harms of alcohol advertising.