Abstract

Internet is substituting Tv in the provision of information and entertainment content. The impact of Internet on citizens and consumers also depends on commercial communication. The regulation of advertising «quantity» is asymmetric and focuses on television. This article discusses the formal and alleged motivations of advertising caps and considers the extension of such regulation to the Internet. In fact, the growing amount of online advertising might affect social welfare in the next future. The main problems of quantitative restraints on the net regard the specification of the formats of advertising to be monitored and the identity of operators concerned, given the structural asymmetries of online media.