The executive puts an end to a long legal vacuum. The government has set out in a decree published this Sunday, November 19 in the Official Journal, the measures applying to advertising at sea. Result: it prohibits illuminated advertising, but authorizes non-illuminated advertising up to 4 square meters. What does this change? At first glance a lot of things, since until then this sector had not yet been regulated.
The trigger? The presence of a large digital screen broadcasting advertising messages along certain busy beaches on the Mediterranean coast. That’s when the state was alerted, according to the web page reporting on the public consultation on the decree. “Several mayors of municipalities in the Alpes-Maritimes department have also requested that measures be adopted to prevent this type of activity from developing,” it is added.
During the summer of 2021, residents and tourists were outraged to see a boat passing along the Côte d’Azur and broadcasting advertisements. Off the coast of Cannes, a ship paraded with a 32 m2 screen on its deck. Enough to disturb vacationers.
After advertisements towed by planes – banned by the Climate and Resilience Law of August 2021 – the associations therefore had advertisements at sea in their sights. Opposed to these practices, Greenpeace Nice had notably launched a petition aimed at the ministry and the prefecture, which gathered more than 11,000 signatures. She denounced “advertising harassment, real and aggressive visual pollution imposed on everyone”. Note that in China and the United States, these practices have haunted mass vacation spots for a long time.
Many exceptions
The government has therefore decided to ban all light advertising on ships sailing in the territorial sea and on French internal maritime waters. Non-illuminated advertising is authorized on supports up to 4 square meters, provided that the boats “are neither equipped nor operated for essentially advertising purposes”, specifies the decree which will come into force in March 2024 .
Exceptions are provided, in particular for “markings affixed to the hull, structural elements, sail or goods of ships mentioning their brand, their builder, their operator or their sponsor”. Advertising “made for the benefit of sponsors of nautical events on the occasion of these events” is also authorized. Exemptions may also be granted “on the occasion of particular events”.
And what about ecological associations? For the association Act for the environment, the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, takes, with this decree, “the responsibility of transforming vacationers into advertising targets”. “With no limit set in terms of the number of boats, it is a safe bet that this decision by the Minister of Ecology will result in a veritable advertising armada of dozens of small boats obstructing the view of the sea or of the ocean”, fears the association. In addition to polluting the sea with boats that run on gasoline, these advertisements also cause visual pollution for vacationers, who would prefer to enjoy the landscape.
The decree is more restrictive than the initial project, which notably authorized advertisements up to 8 square meters. According to a summary note of the public consultation, “a great hostility towards advertising at sea and an almost unanimous desire to ban it completely” was noted. However, underlines the note, a total ban on non-light advertising would have been “likely to cause a disproportionate attack on the constitutionally recognized freedom of expression given the very broad definition of advertising” in the environmental code.