The Design of Food Industry Self-Regulation - The Food Pyramid Meets the Regulatory Pyramid: Responsive Regulation of Food Advertising to Children

Abstract

This chapter forms part of a thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of a PhD from the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney.

This chapter assesses the RCMI and QSRI against recommendations for the design and implementation of self-regulatory codes drawn from government and academic literature. I divide these recommendations into the different stages of the regulatory process, namely: the development of code objectives; administration, monitoring and data collection; complaints handling; enforcement, and review. A key focus of the chapter is whether regulatory processes foster self-regulation that is transparent and accountable to external stakeholder groups. This is a key element in effective and credible private regulation, especially where public interests (including the public health interest) are involved. However, the self-regulatory scheme established by the RCMI and QSRI lacks effective accountability mechanisms and the food industry retains a substantial degree of control over the scheme, despite the fact that self-regulation is offered as an alternative to government controls on food advertising. Accordingly, I make reference to advertising regulatory instruments in Australia and other jurisdictions to illustrate how the self-regulatory processes attached to the RCMI and QSRI could be strengthened.

Keywords: Accountability, transparency, food advertising, self-regulation, regulatory design, enforcement, monitoring

JEL Classification: K10, K30, K32