The very recent law No 4279/2014 has introduced a radical change in the Greek advertising business model and more specifically in the invoicing process of printed and broadcast advertisements.
Up until today, the media usually invoiced the advertisers not directly, but through their advertising agencies. This practice has led to a complicated system of bonuses that the media, and particularly TV channels, offered both to advertising agencies and advertisers. More specifically, advertising agencies received the "year end rebate" (amounting up to 9,9% of their annual advertising volume) and advertisers received - through their agencies - the "year end advertising volume bonus" (usually in the form of credit notes).
The new legislation aims to increase the level of transparency in the relevant transactions and its main provisions are that the media must directly invoice advertisers and that the advertising agencies must not receive any kind of rebate, bonus or credit by the media, with the exception of a handling fee not exceeding 4% of the value of paid invoices.
Immediately after the government took this initiative, both the Hellenic Association of Advertising and Communication Agencies (EDEE) and the Hellenic Advertisers Association (SDE) expressed their disappointment for not being consulted and argued that the new invoicing regime will increase the cost of advertisements. The government responded to these fears by postponing the enforcement of the new legislation, which will come to effect on July 1st, 2015.
The relevant law has lifted various restrictions on mergers between publishing and media companies and has also introduced a series of amendments to labour law in this particular sector which are all in favour of employers (transfer and lending of employees etc). All the above amendments have been heavily criticized by opposition parties and independent media / news agencies and were characterized as a "gift" to a few powerful media owners.
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