Active internet marketing

Paragraph 1 – Additional effect
In addition to that which has been determined in the Dutch Advertising Code, the rules of this Article apply for active internet marketing.

Paragraph 2 – Age mentioning in screen advertising through the internet
In advertising messages from the advertiser which consist in whole or part of any moving images and which are intended for distribution through the internet, whether or not by the advertiser, the educational slogan, such as stated in Article 34, Paragraph 2, should be mentioned clearly on the screen.

Paragraph 3 – Messages on internet platforms under control of the advertiser

a) Advertising messages posted on an internet platform over which the advertiser has some degree of control, should comply with the Dutch Advertising Code, irrespective of who posts the advertising message.

b) If someone else than the advertiser posts an advertising message on the afore-mentioned internet platform:

– the advertiser must – in addition to Paragraph 3 sub a – also have made sure that the person who wants to place the advertising message is at least 18 years old, or;

– this person must have declared that he/she has reached the minimum age of 18 years.

c) In case the declaration under paragraph 3b, 2nd bullet, is missing and/or in case of doubt whether the person is at least 18 years old, the advertiser shall see to it that this person cannot post any messages. In case there is no selection or admission control possible for a certain internet platform, the advertiser should mention on a clearly visible spot that the content of and posting on that internet platform is exclusively intended for persons of 18 years and older.

Paragraph 4 – Messages distributed by the advertiser
In case of active internet marketing, where the receiving party can be selected such as with, but not limited to, advertising messages through email, posts on a social media account of someone else than the advertiser or direct marketing on the basis of digital profiles that are connected to a cookie, the following should be adhered to:

a) a minimum age of 18 years must be used as effective selection criterion, or another such selection criterion from which this minimum age follows, or;

b) the receiving party must have declared that he/she is at least 18 years old.

c) in case a declaration under sub 4b is missing, the advertiser shall make sure that no more than 25% of the minors is reached such as determined in Article 21.

Paragraph 5
Prior to advertising by the advertiser which consists of posting or responding to a message on a social media account of someone else than the advertiser, the advertiser must have made sure that the owner of this social media account is at least 18 years old. If this has not become clear or is not possible, posting a message is not allowed.

Explanation of Article 24
For this reason “liking” by the advertiser on posts, status, pictures or other messages of third parties or “retweeting” is not permitted at this moment, unless it can be demonstrated that the owner of the relevant social media account is at least 18 years old. The owner is for example an official account of a company or a generally well-known natural person. If it concerns a natural person who is generally not known, the advertiser should be able to reasonably determine, through information on his/her profile page, that it concerns a person who is 18 years or older.

Attention: in addition, obviously the instructions based on the legislation and regulation in the framework of privacy and data protection apply (at present e.g. the Personal Data Protection Act, the Telecommunication Act, the Distribution of Advertising by email Code), among which the consent requirement, supplying of and pointing out the possibility to unsubscribe and the duty of information disclosure, as far as is applicable.

Guidelines to Article 24 – Active Internet Marketing
All rules of the Advertising Code for Alcoholic Beverages (RvA) apply to advertising messages in the form of internet marketing and also to the content of third parties. For advertising messages in the form of active internet marketing, the extra requirements of paragraphs 2 through 5 are applicable.

Facebook
By making use of the ‘demographic age restriction policy’ minors cannot see content that is not suitable for them. Be careful with linking content between Facebook and external pages, or with linking from the Facebook Apps-section from and towards your brand page. One should also be careful with using user generated content such as Youtube videos. Namely, Facebook is not able to check these videos on content and to filter them on age when these are shared from a brand page. In case of posts with image that are posted by the advertiser himself, the educational slogan should be mentioned clearly in the image.

Twitter
Since recently it has become possible to make use of an age-check as a brand. This age-check must be used for at least any new followers. In case of tweets with image that are posted by the advertiser himself, the educational slogan should be mentioned clearly in the image. When you are not sure whether a tweet is coming from someone of 18 years and older, it is not desirable to retweet.

Other social media platforms
If the social media platform does not offer the possibility yet to exclude persons younger than 18 years old by means of an age-check or similar age check, it is sufficient to mention in the bio of the platform that the content is only intended for persons of 18 years and older. In case of pictures or other messages with image (through Pinterest), the educational slogan should be mentioned clearly in the image.