A Swiss Town Banned Billboards. Zurich, Bern May Soon Follow
The nation’s Supreme Court ruled governments could act to limit “visual pollution” and citizens could “opt out of unwanted advertising.”
An inconspicuous suburb close to Geneva became the first Swiss municipality to banish commercial advertising from its streets, in a policy that creates a blueprint for similar bans in larger cities across the country.
After opponents to the measure in Vernier, a town of 38,000 people, failed to collect enough signatures for a popular vote on the issue, their last attempt to stop the local government from removing billboards failed this month in Switzerland’s Supreme Court. The justices rejected an appeal to overturn the plan, ruling Vernier’s policy didn’t seek to influence free competition and instead aimed to “combat visual pollution” and gave citizens the “opportunity to opt out of unwanted advertising.”