Regulations to be aware of when installing an advertising screen

The installation of advertising space is subject to specific regulations, which differ according to the type of space and its location. Cenareo offers you a summary of the regulations in force to help you install a digital signage screen: you'll be able to communicate more effectively, while complying with your legal obligations!

Advertising, signs and pre-signs: a fundamental distinction

Advertising, signs and pre-signs are not treated in the same way. You need to be able to distinguish between advertising, signs and pre-signs to avoid any breach of current regulations.

Advertising

Advertising is not defined by the Consumer Code or the Civil Code. However, several definitions are offered by official sources:

• Advertising is an inscription, form or image intended to inform the public or attract its attention. Source : Entreprendre.service -public .fr
• Any form of communication made in the course of a trade, business, craft or profession with the aim of promoting the supply of goods or services, including immovable property, rights and obligations. Source: Council Directive 84/450/EEC of September 10, 1984

A digital signage screen whose content extols the merits of a product or service, informs about a promotion, or highlights your know-how is advertising.

The sign

A sign is an inscription, shape or image directly displayed or affixed to the building where the activity is carried out. The name of your company and your logo above your shop window or on the facade of your offices or factory are signs. They inform passers-by of your company's presence at this address, and may specify the nature of your business: a carrot for a tobacconist, a pair of glasses for an optician, the logo specific to the profession of notary, etc.

The pre-sign

Pre-signs perform a similar function to signs, but with one fundamental difference: they are not affixed directly to the building where the business operates.

For a pre-sign not to be treated as advertising, it must contain an indication of direction or distance. This could be an arrow, for example, or information on the number of meters left to reach your premises or the address of your head office.

Indoor or outdoor advertising

The location of your billboard advertising has a considerable impact on the regulations that apply.

Outdoor advertising must be visible from a road open to public traffic. This may be a road, a freeway, a railway line, a pedestrian street, etc. It is strictly regulated by law.

Indoor" advertising must not be visible from a public thoroughfare. This is the case for a totem in the aisles of a shopping mall, or a digital signage screen installed in a store, on company premises or in a station building. A screen in a shop window is not considered outdoor advertising: it is installed inside your premises, even if it can be seen from outside through the glass.

Coupled with in-window digital signage screens, the Cenareo solution allows you to benefit from more flexible regulations, while activating a high-performance, engaging communication channel that reaches everyone passing in front of your store.

Outdoor advertising regulations

Outdoor advertising is subject to particularly strict regulations.

Limited space

Outdoor advertising cannot be placed just anywhere.

In built-up areas, it is generally permitted. However, it is prohibited in certain places: trees, plantations, electricity poles, road signs and traffic lights, cemetery and public garden walls, walls of non-blind buildings, buildings listed as historic monuments, buildings of aesthetic, historic or picturesque interest, or remarkable heritage sites. Illuminated advertising is prohibited in urban areas with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants that are not part of an urban unit with more than 100,000 inhabitants.

Outside built-up areas, advertising is prohibited, with the notable exception of airports and railway and bus stations.

Rules on location and dimensions

The location and dimensions authorized vary according to the type of advertising and the number of inhabitants in the built-up area.

Regulations distinguish 4 types of advertising:

• Non-illuminated advertising on a wall or fence;
• Non-illuminated ground-mounted advertising ;
• Illuminated advertising ;
• Digital advertising.

And four types of locations:

• Agglomerations with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants (excluding urban units with more than 100,000 inhabitants) ;
• Agglomeration of less than 10,000 inhabitants (in an urban unit of more than 100,000 inhabitants) ;
• Agglomeration of more than 10,000 inhabitants ;
• Outside built-up areas (airport, train and bus stations, etc.).

The installation of new outdoor advertising is also subject to a density rule, to prevent too many advertising spaces from being located in the same area.

A declaration prior to the installation of an advertisement

Many types of advertising are subject to prior declaration:

• Advertisements affixed to walls, fences or the walls of a building ;
• Advertising set in the ground or installed directly on the ground ;
• Advertising on street furniture (bus shelters, newsagents, etc.) ;
• Small-format advertising integrated into storefronts (microdisplay).

The installation of illuminated advertising (excluding advertising illuminated by projection or transparency), of a tarpaulin or of an exceptionally large space to promote a temporary event requires prior authorization, rather than a simple declaration.

The following page provides you with all the detailed information and resources you need for your administrative procedures.

A local tax on outdoor advertising

Outdoor advertising is subject to the local tax on outdoor advertising (TLPE), which may be introduced by the local authority or the public establishment for inter-municipal cooperation (EPCI). The tax is payable by the operator, owner or beneficiary of the advertising device (article L. 2333-6 of the Code général des collectivités territoriales).

More flexible regulations for non-outdoor advertising

Regulations for non-outdoor advertising are much more flexible.

No authorization or prior declaration is required for non-outdoor advertising displays. This type of communication is also not subject to the TLPE, even in the case of digital signage screens installed in shop windows and visible from the outside.

You can freely install digital signage screens on your company premises or in your sales areas, without having to answer to national or local authorities. So you can keep control of your communication activities.

Night-time extinction of illuminated advertising and shop windows

However, special cases apply to digital signage screens visible from a shop window.

Illuminated advertising must be switched off after 1 a.m., and may only be switched back on after 7 a.m.. They must be switched off or put on standby in the event of a serious and imminent threat to the security of the electricity supply, regardless of the time of day.

Extinguishing times are more flexible for store or exhibition windows, which can be extinguished no later than 1 hour after the activity ceases (if it starts after 1 a.m.), and relit 1 hour before the activity begins (if it starts before 7 a.m.).

Exemptions may be granted by the municipality during the Christmas lighting season and on the eve of May 1st.

Locally adapted regulations

A municipality or inter-communal public body can adopt a local advertising regulation (RLP) to regulate the siting and use of signs, pre-signs and outdoor advertising in a given area.

Local regulations may be more restrictive than at national level. For example, in certain areas of the Lyon metropolitan area, digital screens may not exceed 1m² to 2m² cumulative in shop windows, and illuminated advertising will be switched off at 11:00 pm (compared with 1:00 am nationwide).

On the other hand, local advertising regulations can adopt more flexible rules, for example by waiving the ban on advertising in the vicinity of historic monuments, heritage sites and nature reserves.

You should contact the town hall to find out about the existence of any RLP.

Adopt digital signage, a flexible, high-performance advertising solution

Digital signage brings you a powerful, dynamic and engaging advertising space. Complying with legislation, it can easily be deployed within a company, in public reception areas or in shop windows, and meets a wide range of internal communication objectives.

Cenareo offers an intuitive, unified digital signage solution, easy to deploy on a single screen or on a large number of screens, for local or global management. You benefit from personalized advertising space, constantly renewed, adapted to your current and future challenges!

Are you interested in digital signage? Do you see it as a way of boosting your communications, and would you like to read more on the Cenareo  solution? Discover our answers to your challenges!

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