Outdoor LED Advertising: How Digital Outdoor Displays Make Your Business Visible

In Bavaria, advertising installations are structures and need a building permit unless an exemption applies (BayBO Art. 2, 55). Each German state decides which installations are exempt: the model building code names up to 1 m² of display area (MBO § 61), Bavaria up to 1.5 m² and, at the business's own premises, up to 10 m in free height (BayBO Art. 57). Municipalities can set their own rules by bylaw, up to bans (BayBO Art. 81). The application goes to the lower building supervisory authority (BayBO Art. 53).

Light counts as an immission under German law, and avoidable harmful effects must be prevented (BImSchG § 3, § 22). For the assessment there are the LAI guidelines on light immissions: in purely and general residential areas, the guideline value for brightening at the window is 3 lx from 6 am to 10 pm and 1 lx from 10 pm to 6 am. In Bavaria, illuminated or light-emitting advertising installations are banned in the undeveloped outer area (Außenbereich), and the municipality can allow exceptions until 11 pm at the latest (BayImSchG Art. 9).

Outside built-up areas, advertising is prohibited if it can distract or disturb road users in a way that endangers or impedes traffic, and advertising combined with traffic signs is not allowed (StVO § 33). The StVO sets no fixed minimum time for image changes; whether content can distract depends on the individual case. Along motorways and federal, state and district roads, building bans or the consent of the road authority apply depending on the distance (FStrG § 9, BayStrWG Art. 23, 24).