Article 7 of the Climate and Resilience bill provides that local advertising regulations may regulate advertisements and signs located inside shop windows.. In this forum, Eric Plat, president of the Federation of Cooperative and Associated Commerce, considers that it constitutes an attack on the property rights and freedom of enterprise of traders.
The independent traders organized in cooperative or associated groups that we represent are particularly concerned by article 7 of the “Climate and Resilience” bill, which we seek to see removed.. This item, which has already been debated for several weeks within the various trade representative federations, provides that local advertising regulations (RLP) may regulate advertisements and illuminated signs located inside windows or bays of commercial premises. Such a measure will have a certain impact for many traders, already strongly impacted for more than a year now by the various confinements and successive restrictive measures. Such a decision would be likely to cause a disproportionate attack on the property rights and freedom of enterprise of traders., while some of them already have difficulty planning in the medium term. We emphasize that many networks, real estate agencies, pharmacies and opticians for example, have made significant investments to modernize their windows by equipping them in particular with luminous screens that consume little energy and are programmed to comply with nighttime switch-off obligations. The window is for the merchant a tool to make his brand and his brands more attractive., designed uniformly on a national scale. The implementation of local advertising regulations on shop windows would lead to a heterogeneous situation making this essential approach impossible for many businesses organized in networks..
Advantaged shopping malls ?
This article 7 proves to be completely contradictory to the objective of digital transformation of businesses that the State is calling for., while various business digitalization plans have been initiated and retailers have for months been strongly encouraged to develop digital actions and reinvent themselves. This article is also in contradiction with the no less crucial objective of revitalizing city centers, one of the Government's priorities through the City Heart Action Program. Businesses are asked to bring dynamism and modernity to make city centers more lively and attractive, and these windows naturally tend towards this objective. In parallel, the principle of non-artificialization of land enshrined in article 52 of the same bill also has an exception in the event of the project being included in the sector of intervention of a territorial revitalization operation (ORT). By limiting the possibility of trading through interference by the mayor in the operational sphere each time a window is visible from the public highway (what is its nature), we fear that such a measure will encourage businesses to move to shopping malls that are a priori less impacted.
Dynamic screens are multiplying
Finally, window display technology is evolving towards digitalization of customer relations through dynamic screens. Throughout the sphere of civil society, stations, administrations, associations…we are observing an increase in the number of screens to facilitate broadcasting, accessibility and updating of information. We oppose this measure which goes against progress. For this purpose, we would like the deletion of article 7 of the “Climate and Resilience” bill in order to maintain the freedom to undertake and communicate businesses, already facing multiple difficulties in recent months, businesses forced to constantly adapt and reinvent themselves to survive and cope with this unprecedented situation.
