It has already been anticipated how the opportunity and usefulness of regulating marketing communication practice is felt by all the advanced countries and among these, the countries of Western Europe.
The tendency at community level to dictate rules specifically designed for the advertising industry, has prompted operators, in their respective self-regulatory bodies and countries, to start and intensify stricter and more profitable collaboration at European level.

The European Alliance

In this spirit, at the end of the 1980's an informative committee was set up and then in 1992 AEEP/EASA – Alliance Européenne pour l'Ethique en Publicité / European Advertising Standards Alliance – a body with headquarters in Brussels of which the Istituto dell'Autodisciplina Pubblicitaria is one of the founder members.
The aim of this European structure is to demonstrate that what was realized in each country may also be extended to Europe, making it unnecessary for the community legislators to intervene on these matters with new, detailed regulations.

The member countries

Today the Alliance is made of 32 SRO Member bodies, 26 of these are from 24 European countries and the other 6 are from non-European countries
Its aim is to promote an effective advertising system of Self-Regulation, to make the principles inspiring the various systems operating in Europe converge and stimulate control in the same spirit.
An ambitious project tending to promote the use and experience of Self-Regulation in the due respect of the cultural differences in the various countries.Thanks to the contribution of Assosalute, a special section was set up to provide such service within the Review Board. It consists of three Review Board members including the President and is backed by a group of experts who, in turn, take part in its activity offering their advice merely on technical and scientific issues.

Cross-border monitoring

A first concrete result reached by the Alliance is the Cross-border Complaints System, first introduced in September 1992, aimed at settling disputes on advertisements appearing on media from other countries.
Based on the principle of mutual acknowledgement between self-regulatory systems and, generally speaking, on the jurisdiction of the country of origin of the medium concerned, the new approach wishes to guarantee consumers in other countries the same rights as are enjoyed by consumers in the country from which the medium originates.