Legal News

Disruptive billboards prompt regulation rethink in L.A.

By Richard Binder

Kevin Fry, president of the Washington-based anti-billboard group Scenic America, said Los Angeles has the worst billboard problem in the country.

The proliferation has prompted officials to impose a moratorium on new ads as the city considers new regulations aimed at reducing the number of billboards, limiting their size and increasing penalties against those who flout the rules. Past efforts largely collapsed after court challenges by the billboard industry.

The new regulations would also ban digital billboards in most parts of the city. Meanwhile, misdemeanor charges have been filed against companies suspected of violating the city moratorium on new supergraphic and digital billboards.

Advertisers counter that new billboard technologies help businesses reach consumers in an age when TiVo users can skip through commercials and newspaper ads are reaching fewer readers. They insist that safety fears are exaggerated and stress that courts have repeatedly sided with their right to advertise.

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Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on February 23, 2009 (boomark / email).