Poland

There are two documents in Poland which regulate alcohol marketing matters:
– Statutory: The Act of October 26th, 1982 on Upbringing in Sobriety and Counteracting Alcoholism (last version: 1.04.2005);
– Non-statutory: Polish Brewers Advertising Code of June 8th, 2005.

Two articles of the first document (Art. 2 [1], Art. 13 [1]) contain regulations on the promoting, the advertising and the sponsoring of alcoholic beverages. According to the law only beer is allowed to be advertised and promoted through media channels like TV, radio, billboards etc. The only exception for this is at the point of sale of the alcoholic beverages: in these places (a liquor store, a restaurant, a bar, a pub, a separate stall, a wholesale trade – they all have to have a special permission for alcoholic beverages selling) any kind of alcoholic beverages might be promoted and advertised in any way.

The Act of October 26th, 1982 on Upbringing in Sobriety and Counteracting Alcoholism has been changed many times both in the direction of liberalization and more restrictions (it depends mostly on the current government’s alcohol policy). Long term analysis shows that when the national law moves in the direction of more restrictions and strict rules it causes more respect among alcohol producers and the alcohol marketing practices field seems to be well organized. Any liberalization of the Polish alcohol law usually causes some chaos in marketing practices and gives the producers much more flexibility to promote their products. Among many other issues there has always been a discussion and concerning the rules regarding TV advertising. One of the amendments of the Act of October 26th, 1982 on Upbringing in Sobriety and Counteracting Alcoholism from 25 May 2003, allows beer producers to advertise their products on the TV channels after 8 p.m. (In the past there were many different options: after 11 p.m., only non-alcoholic beverages were allowed to be advertised etc.).

The second document: Polish Brewers Advertising Code of 8 June, 2005, is a non-statutory one and refers only to beer advertising. Most of the rules from this regulation are reflected in the statutory one. So making any complaints organizations and institutions usually act on the basis of the Act of October 26th, 1982 on Upbringing in Sobriety and Counteracting Alcoholism. Some of the elements of the Council Recommendation are reflected in the Polish regulations, both in the statutory and non-statutory.

The following document contains an in depth overview of alcohol marketing regulations in Poland: alcohol-marketing-regulations-Poland.pdf

For even more (but older) information on alcohol marketing regulations in Poland, please take a look at Poland’s appendix to the 2007 ELSA (Enforcement of national Laws and Self-regulation on advertising and marketing of Alcohol) report.