NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OTR Media Group, a leading outdoor advertising, billboard and wallscape company, today announced that it prevailed in its longstanding legal battle with the City of New York. The Supreme Court of the State of New York last week rescinded the city building department’s 2016 decision to revoke the company’s outdoor advertising license. Judge Katherine A. Levine said in her order that the prior decision by the city was “disproportionate to the alleged offenses and shocking to the judicial conscious.” OTR Media, which kept operating during the legal fight, retains its license and will continue to serve its many brand name advertisers in the metro area.
According to OTR Media CEO Ari Noe, the company battled the city for more than a decade over the enforcement of sign and billboard locations. It prevailed on many sign placements that were grandfathered-in according to city policies. For others, it paid fines but faced increased and overzealous scrutiny when it challenged the building department’s accounting of the fines and payments.
“We are calling for an investigation by the State Attorney General,” said OTR Media attorney Jeffrey Buss of Smith Buss & Jacobs. “We believe the city unfairly and selectively targeted my client in an effort to drive them out of business.”
Buss said the city’s enforcement power should only be exercised to protect the public health, safety and welfare, not for the commercial advantage of the city when it engages in a competing business.
According to Buss, papers filed in the case include internal city communications calling for the city to set up an aggressive enforcement program, in order for the city, and its preferred business partners, to limit competition and make more money.
“We employ many New Yorkers and offer a great product to our customers,” said Noe. “We are excited to operate free of the harassment of the building department.”
OTR Media co-counsel Allen Schwartz, Esq. said the court noted there were many flaws in Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings Administrative Law Judge Allessandra Zorgniotti’s report and recommendation last year.
“We are pleased with the Court’s decision as the building department’s penalty tried to put OTR Media out of business,” said Schwartz. “This decision enables OTR to put this matter to rest.”
OTR Media Group is a full service outdoor advertising company now in its second decade of operation. The company specializes in providing media sales and signage maintenance, offering billboards, wallscapes and spectacular signs in prime locations in New York City and Los Angeles.
