4th Nov 2022
Last month a new law came into effect imposing strong controls on the use of illuminated billboards.
Under the law all illuminated advertisements (publicité lumineuse) must be switched off between 1am and 6am.
The same applies to shop signs and window displays, as well as the interior of business premises, except where the activity ceases or begins between midnight and 7am, when an hour’s grace is permitted for opening and closing.
For safety and security reasons there are some exceptions to the rule, notably in airports and on street furniture used for transport during the hours of operation of such services. The obligation will apply to street furniture from 1 June 2023.
Street lighting is also excluded, although many local councils are stripping back on the lighting times, with a large number no longer keeping streetlights on all night and in some cases, extinguishing them permanently. In general, city centres remain the exception.
Although a great deal of fuss has been made about new law, in fact much of the legal framework has been in place since 2012, notably for towns under 800,000 population, but the authorities have done very little to enforce it.
As a result, in 2016 protest groups brought a legal action, resulting in the Conseil d’Etat, Supreme Court for administrative law, ordering the government to act on the 2012 law.
As initially framed, the controls were driven not only by the need to energy consumption, but also to protect flora and fauna, and to reduce light pollution, making nocturnal landscapes part of the common heritage of the nation.
Towns and cities over 800,000 population have had the right to adopt their own rules, which have now been abolished and made uniform under the new national law.
Breach of the regulations is punishable by a fine €1,500 for individuals and €7,500 by companies. Previously, there was no sanction for failure to comply.
Where there is "a serious and imminent threat to the security of electricity supply" the new law requires that all digital advertisements whose operation can be controlled remotely will have to be switched off at any time. This would occur where the electricity network supplier RTE declare a red "Ecowatt" status alert. Once again, from 1st June 2023, the rule will apply to all illuminated lighting.
Whilst some commercial operators are showing every effort to reduce energy consumption, there is concern that many will be unable to comply with the new requirements due to the lack of remote controls on a large number of billboards, and that the cost of changing systems will be costly and time-consuming. For that reason, the professional organisation of billboard operators recently brought an unsuccessful legal action to try and delay implementation of the law.
Special events are not covered by the law, for which the local mayor or prefet can make a decision.
That also applies to Christmas lights, where most authorities will continue with them, but on a more moderate scale and with earlier switch off times.
The same legislation also requires that the windows and doors of air-conditioned premises be closed when the system is in operation, sanitary requirements excepting.
The problem for the new regime is the same one that has been around for the past decade; how is it to be enforced? There are no 'lighting police', and the gendarmes are likely to have their hands full of other matters than to go around handing out fines for keeping lights on.
As in the past, enforcing compliance will be down to the local council and to the prefet, and the efficacy of their efforts is limited by the resources available. In the end, therefore, much is going to depend on voluntary compliance and peer pressure to ensure effective operation of the law.
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