Digital Boards Face Big Legal Fight

Group says agency gutted law and overstepped authority

Digital billboards have been a financial boon to the out of home business. But if Scenic America gets its way in court, it could turn into an expensive bust for companies such as Clear Channel Outdoor and Lamar Advertising. On Tuesday, the organization filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to overturn a 2007 decision by the Federal Highway Administration that allowed out of home companies to construct digital billboards along federal highways.

In its complaint against the FHWA and the Department of Transportation, Scenic America alleges that the FHWA's 2007 guidance exempting billboards from the Highway Beautification Act of 1968 prohibiting intermittment lighting gutted the act.

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