The Supreme Court has ratified a fine of 196,000 euros for Mediaset España for advertising undercover in an episode of ‘The One Who Comes’. The sanction was imposed a few years ago by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), but it has not been until now when it has been definitively confirmed.
The case in question
In this way, it is proven that ‘La que se avecina’ committed a serious violation of the General Law of Audiovisual Communication with the episode ‘An anniversary, a toupee and a tupper-sex reunion‘, although the delay in applying the sanction is surprising, since it is an episode of the second season of the Telecinco series that premiered in 2008, subsequently broadcasting several times on other channels of the group.
In the episode in question Several erotic toys were shown, clearly linking us to a specific brand, getting to show the web page in which you could proceed to its acquisition. From Mediaset it was alleged that it was content duly marked as advertising both at the beginning and at the end of the episodes, and also during the advertising breaks, but in the Supreme Court they have rejected his request for “the clear distinction between product presentation and disguised advertising“.
This case is not the first in which Mediaset has been fined for this type of offense, because in 2019 ‘Save me’ also received a fine of 170,000 euros from the magazine Lecturas. It remains to be seen if more similar fines arrive in the future …