Digital legal notices: your display obligations on screen

Since 1st July 2022, electronic publication has become the standard form of publicity for local authority acts. And the French Labour Code requires every company to display a series of documents. The Legal notices module in E-CLICK carries this information on a screen, a touch kiosk or a totem — in a town hall, in a company as well as in an apartment building.

1st July 2022the reform came into force
3,500 inhab.the threshold that changes everything
+1 000EMITY customer accounts

UNDERSTANDING IT

Digital legal notices, a simple definition

Before we talk about equipment, let us put the words back in their place. The subject concerns three very different audiences, with obligations that have little in common.

What are digital legal notices?

Digital legal notices means carrying on an electronic medium the information an organization is required to make public: administrative acts for a town, documents from the French Labour Code for a company, management information for an apartment building. In other words, what used to be pinned on a cork board now appears on a screen, a touch kiosk or a totem.

The benefit goes beyond reading comfort: a digital document is updated from a dashboard, downloaded by QR code and stays available when the offices are closed.

  • ✓On site — reception hall, break area, common areas
  • ✓On the move — QR code on the screen, document retrieved on the phone
  • ✓Up to date — one change, one click, every screen follows
  • ✓Accessible — wheelchair-accessible height, adjustable contrast and text sizes

Resident scanning the QR code on a kiosk to download an administrative act

REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

What the law says for local authorities

The 2021 reform changed the hierarchy of media. Here are the four points to keep in mind before choosing equipment.

Ordinance 2021-1310

One reform, two texts

Ordinance no. 2021-1310 and decree no. 2021-1311 of 7 October 2021 reformed the rules on publicity, entry into force and preservation of local authority acts. They have applied since 1st July 2022.

Standard rule

Electronic publication becomes the rule

Since that date, publication in electronic form on the local authority’s website is the standard form of publicity for acts. Paper display is no longer the principle.

Over 3,500 inhab.

No alternative above the threshold

Towns with more than 3,500 inhabitants and their groupings, like departments and regions, must publish electronically. The choice of medium is not left to them.

Under 3,500 inhab.

Three options, by resolution

Towns with fewer than 3,500 inhabitants, joint authorities and mixed syndicates keep the choice between display, paper publication and electronic publication. That choice is formalized by an express council resolution.

The point that is often forgotten: paper on request

Going digital does not make paper disappear. So that nobody is left out — residents with no internet access, people who are not comfortable with digital tools — every local authority concerned must provide a paper version of the act to anyone who asks for it. That is exactly where a freely accessible screen or kiosk makes sense: it brings the information within reach of those who would never look it up on a website.

IN A TOWN HALL

The acts to bring to residents’ attention

Council resolutions, municipal orders, planning: going digital starts with knowing what has to be published.

Town hall officer publishing council resolutions and municipal orders

Which documents should a town hall publish?

The list depends on the life of the town, but you almost always find the same families of documents. An inventory drawn up at the start avoids omissions and lets you size the equipment to the real volumes.

  • ✓Municipal council resolutions and minutes of meetings
  • ✓Municipal orders (roads, traffic, use of public space)
  • ✓Planning documents: the local urban plan and its revisions, building permits, prior declarations
  • ✓Consultation and public inquiry notices, with their deadlines
  • ✓Local regulatory decisions and service information

Every document stays available as a PDF, downloadable in one move from the screen thanks to the QR code.

IN A COMPANY

Company display screen: nine pieces of information to keep visible

A yellowed board in the corridor or a readable screen in the break area: the obligation is the same, the result is not.

What the French Labour Code requires you to display

The French Labour Code requires several pieces of information to be accessible to all employees, in a place where they can consult them freely. A screen in the reception hall or the break area brings all of it together in one place — and can be corrected in seconds when a contact detail changes.

  • 1Contact details for the occupational health service and the labour inspectorate
  • 2The applicable collective bargaining agreement and how to consult it
  • 3Emergency numbers (fire service, ambulance, police)
  • 4Measures against moral and sexual harassment
  • 5Professional equality between women and men
  • 6Fire safety instructions and evacuation plan
  • 7Working hours, weekly rest and working time
  • 8Contact details for employee representatives and the works council (CSE)
  • 9How to access the workplace risk assessment document (DUERP)

Company display screen in a break area showing the mandatory documents

MULTI-SITE

When the display has to follow the teams

A mandatory display is only worth something if it is up to date everywhere, including on the most remote sites.

Mandatory display screen in the site cabin of a construction project

Building sites, workshops, multiple locations

In construction and industry, the difficulty is not knowing what to display: it is keeping the same display up to date across sites that open, move and close. Managing the screens remotely avoids update rounds.

  • ✓One equipped site cabin, and the display fills itself from head office
  • ✓Safety instructions and emergency numbers specific to each site
  • ✓Shared documents sent out in one go across the whole fleet
  • ✓Rugged screens for a workshop, a warehouse or a site cabin

IN AN APARTMENT BUILDING

Mandatory display in a multi-unit building

Managing agents and social landlords often look after dozens of entrance halls. The glazed board on the ground floor can be managed remotely too.

What goes up in the common areas

The entrance hall remains the place where information really reaches the occupants. Some notices even have a regulatory basis: under article 9 of decree no. 67-223 of 17 March 1967, the managing agent indicates by display in the common areas the date of the next general meeting and the option for co-owners to have questions added to the agenda.

  • ✓Date of the next general meeting and how to add questions to the agenda
  • ✓Contact details for the managing agent, office hours and the on-call number
  • ✓House rules and waste sorting instructions
  • ✓Works in progress, water or power cuts, bulky waste collection
  • ✓Fire safety instructions and emergency numbers

Good to know: this display is not prescribed on pain of nullity of the general meeting — it remains an obligation of the managing agent nonetheless.

Display screen in the entrance hall of a condominium building

BENEFITS

What moving to a screen changes

Beyond compliance, three effects show up in the first few weeks.

One update, every screen

A paper display means printing, travelling and putting it up, board by board. A digital document is replaced from the dashboard, and the change reaches every screen at the same time.

Readable by everyone, even with the doors closed

A kiosk in the hall or a totem on the frontage keeps the information available outside opening hours. Installed at a wheelchair-accessible height, with suitable contrast and text sizes, it fits into an accessibility approach (French RGAA 4.1 standard).

Less paper, a CSR argument

Every update avoided is ink and paper saved. The saving depends on the number of boards and the publishing rhythm; it also gives you a concrete argument for your environmental transition files.

COMPARISON

Website, dedicated kiosk or multi-purpose screen?

Each medium answers a different need. The table below puts them back in their place.

Read this before comparing. These three columns do not play the same role. Electronic publication of acts happens on the local authority’s website: that is what fulfils the regulatory obligation. A kiosk or a totem does not replace it — it complements the setup, by making the information accessible on site to those who would not look it up online.

So the question is not « website or kiosk? » but « how do we also reach the residents who never visit the website? »

Criterion Website alone Dedicated single-purpose kiosk Screen + E-CLICK
Role in the eyes of the law The medium for publishing acts — this is what fulfils the obligation Complement for consultation on site Complement for consultation on site
Residents with no internet access ✗  Out of reach ✓  Free consultation in the hall ✓  In the hall and outdoors
Wheelchair accessibility Depends on the resident’s own device ✓  Suitable screen height ✓  Suitable height, RGAA 4.1 contrast
Availability outside opening hours ✓  If the person is online Depends on the location (indoors) ✓  Outdoor totem, 24/7
Communication for the local authority ✗  Another channel needed ✗  Legal use only ✓  Digital signage included
Indicative cost Website hosting and maintenance Dedicated equipment budget Subscription + screen, 3-month free trial
Time to go live A few hours if the website exists Several weeks (installation) A few days, with a certified reseller on site

SETTING IT UP

Three steps to start with peace of mind

The project is simpler than it looks: most of it happens before you buy the hardware.

1

Take stock of your obligations

First check which side of the 3,500-inhabitant threshold your town sits on — or, in a company, which documents the French Labour Code requires of you. Then draw up an inventory of what has to be published, and how often.

2

Choose the location, then the screen

The location decides the hardware, not the other way round. A touch kiosk suits the reception hall, an outdoor totem extends consultation beyond opening hours, a wall screen is enough in a break area. An EMITY certified reseller takes care of the installation.

3

Look for available funding

For a local authority, several schemes can lighten the investment. Multi-purpose equipment, used both for legal notices and for municipal communication, generally makes a stronger case in a grant application than a single-purpose kiosk.

FUNDING

The schemes a local authority can draw on

A digital legal notices project can fit into several grant frameworks. Criteria and rates change: the thing to do is to confirm them with your prefecture.

DETR — equipment grant for rural areas

Supports investment by rural towns and small towns, digital equipment included.

Rural towns

DSIL — local investment support grant

Supports the modernization of local public services, with attention paid to digital projects.

Public services

Fonds Vert — environmental transition for local areas

Covers projects that combine digital modernization with a smaller environmental footprint.

CSR angle

Local schemes — region, department, inter-municipal body

Complementary schemes exist depending on the area. Your prefecture remains the most reliable source for the criteria in force.

To be checked locally

One piece of advice for your application

Equipment that only serves legal notices remains a single-purpose investment. The same screen that also carries the town’s communication — cultural calendar, alerts, practical information — tells a different story in a grant application. Do present it that way.

OUR ANSWER

E-CLICK: the Legal notices module in E-MANAGER

E-CLICK is the interactive display module of the E-MANAGER suite, the web platform from which EMITY runs all of its screen uses. Its Legal notices module brings together in one place the documents to publish, the screens that carry them and the scheduling that keeps them rotating.

EMITY has more than 1,000 customer accounts in France and Europe, with a network of more than 130 distribution partners who handle installation and follow-up close to the ground. It is that network which supports local authorities, from the first kiosk to a complete fleet.

Straightforward to use

Officers publish with no technical training: you drop in the document, you choose the screen.

In your brand style

Colors, logo and layout follow the identity of the town or the company.

Every format

PDF, images, videos: documents go out as they are, with no prior conversion.

Download by QR code

The visitor scans, the document lands on their phone. They leave with it, not just with the memory of it.

Your website on the screen

The kiosk can display the local authority’s website directly, where the acts are published.

Consultation statistics

You see which documents are really consulted, and which ones deserve a better place.

Time scheduling

The screen changes content depending on the day and the hour, with no intervention.

One fleet, one dashboard

From one screen to several hundred, management stays centralized in E-MANAGER.

DUAL USE

One screen, two missions

This is the point that sets a multi-purpose screen apart from a dedicated kiosk: the same equipment carries legal notices during the useful hours, then the local authority’s communication the rest of the time. The switch follows your scheduling, with no manual intervention.

Legal notices mode

  • ✓Opening hours — council resolutions as PDFs, with a QR code
  • ✓Continuously — orders, consultation notices, administrative acts
  • ✓On the frontage — documents available even when the town hall is closed

Communication mode

  • ✓In the evening — town news, cultural calendar
  • ✓At weekends — events, services open, weather alerts
  • ✓During the holidays — office hours, useful contacts, emergency numbers

Your residents find the official documents when they need them, and the life of the town the rest of the time. One infrastructure, two uses.

CSR ARGUMENT

Legal notices and E-PAPER: a good match

On content that barely moves, digital ink changes the energy equation — and adds weight to an environmental transition file.

Going further with digital ink

A legal document rarely changes from one hour to the next: it stays on display for days, sometimes weeks. That is exactly the ground of E-PAPER, digital ink: the screen only draws power when it changes image. The Legal notices module in E-CLICK is compatible with this technology, which EMITY is the first French software company to support.

  • ✓0 W to keep a document on display
  • ✓Up to 200 days of battery life (Samsung EM32DX)
  • ✓Readable in full sunlight, with no glare and no backlight
  • ✓-40 % CO₂ in manufacturing (Samsung EM13DX, bio-resin)

E-PAPER digital ink screen readable in full sunlight outdoors

GOING FURTHER

A totem on the frontage, for the hours when everything is closed

It is often in the evening or at the weekend that people look for administrative information. An outdoor totem takes over when the doors are closed.

Digital legal notices totem installed outdoors in front of a town hall

The E-CLICK brochure

Detailed features, available hardware, subscription plans and customer feedback: the brochure covers all of it, enough to prepare a committee meeting or a grant application.

  • ✓The hardware: kiosk, indoor and outdoor totem, wall screen
  • ✓The Standard, Premium and Premium+ plans
  • ✓The installation steps with a certified reseller

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about digital legal notices

The points local authorities, companies and managing agents ask us about most often.

Digital legal notices means publishing on an electronic medium the information an organization must make public: administrative acts for a town, documents required by the French Labour Code for a company, management information for an apartment building. The medium can be a website, a screen, a touch kiosk or an outdoor totem.

Ordinance no. 2021-1310 and decree no. 2021-1311 of 7 October 2021 reformed the rules on publicity, entry into force and preservation of the acts of local authorities and their groupings. They have applied since 1st July 2022: publication in electronic form has become the standard form of publicity.

Towns with fewer than 3,500 inhabitants, as well as joint authorities and mixed syndicates, keep the choice between three options: display, publication in paper form or electronic publication. That choice must be recorded by an express council resolution. Nothing stops a small town from choosing digital: it is often an opportunity to modernize its communication at the same time.

No. So that people with no internet access, or who are not comfortable with digital tools, are not left out, electronic publication comes with an obligation for the local authority to provide a paper version of the act to anyone who requests it. A freely accessible screen or kiosk answers the same concern: putting the information back within reach on site.

No, and this matters: electronic publication of acts happens on the local authority’s website, which remains the medium that carries the obligation. A kiosk or a totem complements that setup: consultation on site, wheelchair accessibility, availability outside opening hours, download by QR code. The two reinforce each other rather than replace each other.

The French Labour Code requires the following to be accessible to all employees, among others: contact details for the occupational health service and the labour inspectorate, the applicable collective bargaining agreement, emergency numbers, measures against harassment, professional equality between women and men, fire safety instructions, working hours, contact details for employee representatives and the works council (CSE), and how to access the workplace risk assessment document (DUERP). A screen in the hall or the break area brings them together in one place.

Under article 9 of decree no. 67-223 of 17 March 1967, the managing agent indicates by display in the common areas the date of the next general meeting and the option offered to co-owners to have questions added to the agenda. This display is not prescribed on pain of nullity of the meeting. In practice, the hall also carries the managing agent’s contact details, the house rules, works in progress and safety instructions.

The location guides the choice. A touch kiosk suits the reception hall, an outdoor totem extends consultation beyond opening hours, a wall screen is enough in a break area or in common areas. Then look at three things: the screen height (wheelchair accessibility), the option to download documents by QR code, and whether the equipment can also serve your communication.

Once the location is settled and the hardware chosen, deployment is counted in days rather than weeks: an EMITY certified reseller installs the screen and sets up the first content. The 3-month free trial, for up to 3 screens, lets you test the Legal notices module with your own documents before committing.

Often, yes. EMITY ensures compatibility with every screen manufacturer, which makes it possible to take over an existing fleet without replacing it — that is the point of the Replay label. A technical review with a reseller confirms what can be kept.

Let us go through your display obligations one by one

Town hall, company or apartment building: a thirty-minute conversation is usually enough to know what has to be displayed, where to put the screen and what it represents. The 3-month free trial then gives you time to judge for yourself.