As of September 1, all the huge roadside signs will be discontinued. However, that is not entirely the case. According to the new legal amendments, about 3,000 billboards will disappear from Czech roads and highways. The total number, however, is about 25,000. So what will happen to the rest? Businesses hope that they will not have to tear down these banners, but simply replace the ads with non-commercial motifs!
The removal of this advertising message has already begun in recent weeks, replacing it with the Czech flag. According to the business, this action has completely changed the character of what was originally an advertising area. This is exactly how the law defines it. Therefore, the Outdoor Advertisers Association devised this change so that more than 20,000 signs would not have to be torn down.
The union further states that banning billboards is essentially the same as expropriation. If the state unilaterally advances that outdoor billboards are a legitimate business and now seeks to eliminate them without compensation, it is in effect an expropriation. And that action is constitutionally authorized only in the public interest and for compensation. But no public interest has ever been demonstrated by the state, nor has compensation been promised.
According to the union, the only problem with advertising along highways is when carriers are there illegally and should not be there in the first place. Since they are there illegally, it is clear that they do not have the elements that are mandated precisely for safety reasons. Therefore, says the union, the state should have insisted on the removal of these defective parts first, rather than banning legal and safe advertising carriers altogether.
The prohibition of these advertising signs on the roadside of highways and first class roads already stems from the Road Traffic Law, which was amended in 2012. This amendment left a five-year period to resolve potential disputes with outdoor advertisers. And that period is now coming to an end.
This year, a group of more than 15 legislators appealed to the Constitutional Court to repeal the part of the amendment regarding the prohibition of advertising areas. The timing of this is very interesting, given the five-year time frame for dealing with this situation, and it will be interesting to see how this court case unfolds.