We all remember the global furore early this year that followed the publication of the anti-islamic cartoons of Mohammed. The cartoons were orginally published in Denmark which led politicians there to trumpet the importance of freedom of speech as a fundamental building block of western society.

When it comes to images of much less explosive materials, the law in Denmark is very different however. Working on a recent project to develop a website supporting the Danish launch of a new coldsore treatment (a medical device by definition), the lawyer who was checking our content prior to launch advised us to remove a photo from the site. The image showed a herpes sufferer with a painful looking cold sore on the corner of his mouth. Apparently, images of wounds or injuries which are targeted at ordinary consumers are not to be shown for fear that they may frighten people.

There are other peculiarities in Denmark when it comes to consumer facing materials: when making product claims that are supported by clinical studies and surveys, the actual results of those studies must not be shown. We have launched the same coldsore site all across Europe, sticking to the “master template” as closely as possible. There are always legal technicalities, or even cultural norms that needed to be taken into account when rolling a site into a specific country. However, the legal review of the Danish site uncovered a lot of differences between Danish and EU law.