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Abstract
Generic promotion, financed by mandatory assessments from producers, is often an
instrument used by the agricultural policy in order to further the demand and to broaden
the market of agricultural products. The generic promotion generates also some legal
problems. The first among them is the relation between mandatory assessments and the
constitutionally warranted freedom of the speech. The most numerous judgments about
this issue are found in USA, where the courts have developed various criteria within the
theory of »commercial speech« and the theory of »government's speech«. In the
European Community (European Union), the Commission as well as the Court of Justice
have dealt with the question under what conditions the mandatory assessments for
promotion of agricultural products should be qualified as measures, which have equivalent
effect as prohibited quantitative restrictions in free movements of goods between Member
States, as well as with the problem of products double charged with mandatory
assessments for generic promotion, firstly in the Member State of origin, and secondly, in
the Member State of destination.