Advertising ban in the Czech Republic

10.7.2018

Question for written answer E-003767-18
to the Commission
Rule 130
Daniel Dalton (ECR)

Since 1 September 2017, under an amendment to the Czech Republic’s Road Act businesses are prevented from using outdoor advertising on motorways and main roads to promote their goods and services. However, this ban on outdoor advertising does not apply to 2nd and 3rd category roads or within cities, or to cases where an undertaking has a registered place of business within 200 metres of an advertising billboard.

This measure appears to discriminate against all undertakings that do not have a registered place of business alongside motorways and 1st category roads in the Czech Republic, as they are unable to advertise to potential customers alongside those routes. This particularly affects businesses from other Member States.

Is it the view of the Commission that this law applied in the Czech Republic is in compliance with the principle of free movement of services in the internal market? Or does the Commission consider it to be a non-tariff barrier designed so as to disproportionately penalise EU businesses established in another Member State which operate in the Czech market as part of the internal market but without having a place of business in the Czech Republic?