Prohibitions on the display of external advertising

Verified 31 March 2026 - Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister), Ministry in charge of the Environment

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

An advertisement cannot be settled in any place. The regulations vary depending on whether its installation is envisaged in conurbation or outside of this one.

In agglomeration

Within agglomerations, advertising is allowed.

By exception, advertising is forbidden at the following locations:

  • On the trees
  • In national parks and nature reserves
  • On buildings classified or registered under historical monuments
  • On natural monuments and in the classified or registered sites
  • On plantations, transport and electrical distribution poles, telecommunication poles, public lighting installations
  • Public equipment relating to road, rail, inland waterway, maritime or air traffic
  • On fences that are not blind
  • On cemetery and public garden walls
  • On the walls of buildings, except where the walls are blind or have at least one opening with a unit area of less than 0,50 m².

Advertising is also forbidden in the following places, except in the case of a derogation provided for in local advertising regulations :

In addition, the light advertising is forbidden :

  • In agglomerations of less than 10,000 inhabitants not part of a urban unit more than 100,000 inhabitants
  • On from street furniture located in the agglomerations of less than 10,000 inhabitants and in certain protected areas: regional natural parks, the accession area national parks and Natura 2000 sites
  • On land vehicles.

Finally, when it is non-luminous and sealed to the ground or settled directly to the ground , advertising is also forbidden in the following places:

  • 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 urban plan located in agglomeration.
  • In areas to be protected because of the quality of sites, natural environments, landscapes and their aesthetic or ecological interest located in agglomerations.

Outside built-up areas

Outside the agglomerations, advertising is prohibited.

By exception, it is allowed inside the following places:

  • Airports
  • Stations rail and road
  • Sports equipment with a seating capacity of at least 15 000
  • In the immediate vicinity of shopping mall establishments exclusive to any dwelling, if Local Advertising Regulation (LPR) authorizes him to do so.

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