A distinction is made between advertisements that are part of a mass media campaign, and other advertisements that are disseminated on a smaller scale.
A mass media campaign is one where advertisements are disseminated to at least 25,000 consumers.
The following are unquestionably regarded as mass media campaigns:
- advertisements that are visible from the public road or on a publicly accessible infrastructure (e.g. stadiums or metro stations);
- advertisements that are posted on a website by the site’s operator or by another person (e.g. on a forum);
- advertisements that are disseminated via a social network by a person who has at least 25,000 followers on that network at the beginning of the dissemination or by a person who pays that network for their dissemination.
Advertisements intended for use in a mass media campaign must be notified in advance to the FSMA.
The FSMA has published a Communication that outlines the procedures for fulfilling the notification requirement. Notification to the FSMA must be made 10 calendar days before the date of the dissemination of the advertisement. There is no mandatory approval by the FSMA. If no response is received from the FSMA within 10 days, this cannot be considered an implicit approval by the FSMA.
If the dissemination of the advertisements takes place outside the context of a mass media campaign, then there is no notification requirement and the FSMA carries out ex post supervision only.
Under no circumstances may the advertisement mention any action taken by the FSMA.