13. 01. 12. - 16:02

DocLX abolishes booze ads

Austria’s leading post-graduation holiday organiser promised to stop advertising around-the-clock alcohol supply.

The Association for Consumer Information (VKI) revealed last October it called for an injunction on the promotion activities of DocLX and Splashline. The booming companies organise one- and two-week seaside vacations of tens of thousands of Austrian teenagers every summer.

VKI said the firms must stop promoting the "24-hour supply with quality alcohol". The organisation explained it decided to launch legal action "because it seems that Austria’s biggest Maturareise holiday organisers try to outmuscle each other over who offers more high-percentage drinks."

VKI said people younger than 16 were not allowed to consume drinks with high alcohol percentage in many Austrian regions "for a good reason". VKI also pointed out that federal education laws banned alcohol ads from schools completely.

Now DocLX chiefs said they agreed to stop promoting the provision with alcohol in their ad campaigns for holidays for teenagers who passed their final school exams (Matura). DocLX managers said yesterday (Thurs) the wellbeing and health of Austria’s youth "is of great importance to us". After the accusations were brought forward by VKI, the company announced that it "has not experienced a single grave incident involving alcohol and in general in 12 years of organising Maturareise parties."

Newspapers report today that the firm’s key rival did not reach an out of court settlement with VKI. A court will examine the case against Splashline next month.

Polls conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that around a third of Austrian teenagers had been completely drunk at least twice in their lives. The international organisation also found that one in four 15-year-olds described themselves as regular smokers.

Meanwhile, anti-smoking campaigners announced they considered launching a lawsuit against a new railway company for breaching Austria’s smoking laws. Dietmar Erlacher, who has been reporting thousands of pubs and bars across the country to the authorities in the past years for ignoring the rules, said yesterday he would take Westbahn to court.

Erlacher claimed the private railroad enterprise’s smoker cabins contradicted federal restrictions on smoking in public places. He said non-smokers had to walk through the smoking areas in trains of the company which started operating between Vienna and Salzburg last month. Erlacher explained he was collecting reports on experiences by passengers at the moment. The self-styled anti-smoking sheriff revealed he caught a 13-year-old girl smoking in a Westbahn train smoker cabin.

A spokesman for Federal Railways’ (ÖBB) new competitor said today no laws were broken. The Westbahn official announced his firm was not intimidated by the possibility of being ordered to argue its point in court. He explained that smoker cabins were separated by doors from other departments. He stressed that the smoking lounges featured automatic air circulation systems.