Theatres to be banned from turning bad reviews into a show of support

The curtain is about to come down on theatres that misquote reviewers on billboards or in other advertising, thanks to an EU directive which will outlaw misleading publicity.

The legislation, which will come into force in December, will make it illegal to extract a positive word or phrase from a theatre review if that paints a misleading picture of the article as a whole. Lawyers are already warning that producers will have to be more careful in the future when using selective quotes in publicity material.

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The European Commission said that musicals and plays could fall under the scope of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, although it is a much broader piece of legislation.

Helen Kearns, European Commission spokeswoman on consumer affairs, said: "This is a very far-reaching set of new rules that comes into force in December this year to ensure that consumers can trust the things they are told by businesses.

"It is policed on a case-by-case basis by the Office of Fair Trading. It should apply to misleading advertising right across the board from airline tickets to theatre tickets."

The law bars any advert that contains "false information" or any claim that "deceives or is likely to deceive the consumer" so that it "causes or is likely to cause him to take a transactional decision that he would not have taken otherwise".