FEDMA Blasts European Carbon Emission Proposal

The Federation of European Direct and Interactive Marketing (FEDMA) has blasted European Union proposals to introduce carbon dioxide warnings on automotive marketing materials, according to wire service reports.

An EU report calls for marketing material for cars, such as direct mail, e-mails or Web sites to dedicate 20% of their space “health warnings.”

“Fedma believes that this proposal would have the effect of reducing the size and amount of direct marketing for cars and other vehicles but how exactly it would work for Web sites is very unclear,” said Alastair Tempest, director general of FEDMA. “However, it is also very probable that in the medium to long term consumers would simply ignore this information, and thus the measure would be counter-productive. This has happened with the large health warnings on tobacco promotion and packaging. The consumer needs the details of CO2 emissions but this is not the effective way to provide it.”

The European Commission said it may introduce legislation early next year.