Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher announced on Sunday upcoming decrees to force air-conditioned stores to close their doors and reduce illuminated advertising, drawing much inspiration for advertising from already existing regulations that apply poorly.
“In the next few days I will issue two decrees: the first generalizes the prohibition of illuminated advertising regardless of the size of the city between 1 and 6 in the morning”, with the exception of airports and train stations, and “the second prohibits businesses from having its doors open while the air conditioning and heating are running,” the minister told the Sunday newspaper.
Leaving the doors open, “it is 20% more consumption and (…) it is absurd”, justifies Agnès Pannier-Runacher at RMC.
Paris, Lyon, Bourg-en-Bresse…
Cities like Bourg-en-Bresse, then Lyon, Besançon and Paris have taken municipal decrees since mid-July, when France experienced an exceptional heat wave, for air-conditioned shops to close their doors, on pain of a fine.
The Government plans to generalize it to the entire country, with a fine of up to 750 euros, but initially it will focus on informing merchants.
As for illuminated advertising, current legislation distinguishes agglomerations with more or less 800,000 inhabitants: it is prohibited between 1 and 6 in the morning in France in those with less than 800,000 inhabitants. In the most populous, the rules depend on the local advertising regulations (RLP) if there are any.
The current law also requires turning off illuminated signs and shop windows from 1 in the morning.
Towards more controls and more sanctions?
The ministry could not specify the content of the next decree on Sunday, but explains that it will aim to “harmonize the rules”, without specifying the number of crowds today covered by an RLP or specifically how the controls and sanctions will be, up to 1,500 euros, It will be implemented.
“The contours will be specified” when the decree comes out, “the idea is really that this is applicable now,” the ministry added.
Today, non-compliance with the rules, which have been in place since 2013, is not heavily penalized. “There remains the challenge of enforcing these texts by those who have public responsibility for them: the communities and the State,” recently commented the ANPCEN association, which fights against light pollution.
“To date, not only does the State not carry out the controls it is responsible for, but it returns the responsibility to the voluntary associations,” he denounces.
The Citizen Convention for Climate, wanted by President Emmanuel Macron, was much more ambitious and had proposed to the government “the prohibition of these screens (video advertising) in public space, public transport and at points of sale”, a proposal that had been rejected
Source: BFM TV
