Where is it forbidden to place outside advertisements?

Verified 17 September 2024 - Legal and Administrative Information Directorate (Prime Minister), Ministry of the Environment

The publicity is an inscription, form or image, intended to inform or attract the attention of the public. We are talking about advertising outside when visible from a lane open to public traffic (road, motorway, road, railway, etc.).

An advertisement cannot be settled anywhere. The regulations vary depending on whether it is planned to be installed in built-up area or outside of this one.

In built-up areas

Within agglomerations, advertising is allowed.

By exception, advertising is forbidden at the following locations:

  • On the trees
  • On plantations, transport and electrical distribution poles, telecommunication poles, public lighting installations
  • On public facilities relating to road, rail, inland waterway, sea or air traffic
  • On the fences that are not blind
  • On cemetery and public garden walls
  • On the walls of buildings except when these walls are blind or have at least one opening with a unit area of less than 0,50 m²
  • Immovable property classified or registered under historical monuments
  • On natural monuments and in the classified or registered sites
  • Within 100 meters and in the field of visibility of buildings with an aesthetic, historic or picturesque character
  • In the perimeter of remarkable heritage sites
  • In national parks, regional natural parks and nature reserves
  • In the special areas of conservation and special protection areas.

In addition, the light advertising shall be prohibited in agglomerations of less than 10,000 inhabitants not being part of a urban unit more than 100,000 inhabitants. It is also prohibited in urban areas, regardless of the yearnumber of inhabitants, when affixed to a vehicle used as an advertising medium.

Finally, when it is non-luminous and settled to the ground, advertising is also forbidden in the following locations:

  • In agglomerations of less than 10 000 inhabitants not forming part of a urban unit more than 100,000 inhabitants
  • In wooded areas (woods, forests, parks) classified by a local city planning plan
  • In the areas to be protected because of the quality of the sites, natural environments, landscapes and their aesthetic or ecological interest.
Outside built-up areas

Outside built-up areas, advertising is prohibited.

By exception, it is authorized within the following places:

  • Airports
  • Stations rail and road
  • Sports facilities with a seating capacity of at least 15 000
  • Close to the shopping mall establishments exclusive of any dwelling, if a Local Advertising Policy (RLP) allows it to do so.

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