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31 J. Consumer Pol'y 1 (2008)

handle is hein.journals/jrncpy31 and id is 1 raw text is: J Consum Policy (2008) 31:1-4 DOI 10.1007/s 10603-007-9060-3 The Consumer, the European Union, and Media Law Alison Harcourt - Stephen Weatherill Received: 16 October 2007 /Accepted: 16 October 2007 / Published online: 16 January 2008 © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2007 This Special Issue of the Journal of Consumer Policy brings together edited versions of papers presented at the workshop The Consumer, the European Union, and Media Law held at the University of Exeter on 19 March 2007.1 The interdisciplinary workshop brought together two themes relating to European media law and regulation: First, it identified European Union (EU) rules and their effect on consumers and public interest regulation and, second, it assessed the level of consumer participation in EU policy-making. Our questions in this issue are several. In connection with the first theme, we ask whether the drive for industrial competitiveness prejudices consumer input and the protection of the public interest. Is EU regulation eroding national laws aimed at providing minimum protection for public viewing or is it maintaining sufficient standards for regulation which can be supplemented by national law? The second theme asks how clearly is the consumers voice heard in policy-making. Is consumer participation in policy making lessened due to a weakness in the EU institutional framework (the so-named democratic deficit) or is the consumer voice strengthened through forms of soft governance, such as industry/civil society partnership, input by European and international civil society fora and improve- ments in institutional requirements for consultation? Are there means to strengthen these mechanisms? European deregulation began in traditional utilities industries such as telecommunica- tions, energy, and transport. Now it is moving to new areas such as broadcasting, the internet, and electronic commerce, as digital technology puts an end to spectrum scarcity. Deregulation refers to the removal of state controls on a particular activity. In the case of broadcasting, it refers to the removal of restrictions on content and advertising. Such shifts away from public interest regulation are intimately connected to the increasing 'The workshop was funded by the Information Society Network: http://www.huss.ex.ac.uk/politics/ staff/harcourt/other.php. A. Harcourt (E) Department of Politics, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ, UK e-mail: A.Harcourt@exeter.ac.uk S. Weatherill Somerville College, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6HD, UK e-mail: Stephen.weatherill@law.ox.ac.uk ' Springer

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