Ignoring the fine notice is not recommended
If you are caught parking wrongly or speeding while on holiday, you will quickly receive an ugly souvenir from abroad. Expensive fines often put pressure on the holiday budget, but should not be ignored lightly.
But how should German vacationers deal with the expensive fines? A question that many travelers ask themselves when they are fined over 100 euros or even 480 euros. Hannes Krämer, lawyer at the European car club ACE, explains to Focus that while those fines could previously be ignored, this is no longer possible or recommended today.
Accordingly, penalties from most EU countries can now also be enforced in Germany. In addition, a real business has developed around the collection of foreign fines, debt collection companies, lawyers and notaries have made this their task. But not all fines from abroad have to be paid by traffic offenders.
Check claims carefully!
It is important to check the fine notice from abroad for plausibility. “Is the accusation justified, did I actually park wrongly at the time mentioned, was on the phone on the phone at the wheel or was I driving too fast?”, Krämer clarifies. In addition, the fine notice or the claim must have been written in German; if this is not the case, the request can be ignored.
If there is no reason to object to the traffic offense, it is advisable to pay the fine as soon as possible. Countries like Italy and France even discount fines if a certain deadline is met. Great Britain, Slovenia, Spain and Greece also grant a discount of up to 50 percent if the claim is settled quickly.
In these cases no payment is required
However, fines do not have to be paid if they cannot be sanctioned in certain cases under German law. “[…] when drivers were flashed from behind. In Germany there is driver liability, a photo from behind is not enough as proof,” explains Kraemer.
Nevertheless, any notice of fines should be checked legally, even those who ignore a claim and no longer receive mail can be prosecuted when re-entering the country in question. Legal claims remain enforceable here and are then usually significantly higher. Only the statutory limitation periods of the individual countries protect against enforcement.
Enforcement under EU regulation
Traffic fines from 70 euros including administration costs are enforced in Germany from other European countries. Excluded from this are penalties from Austria, these are collected in Germany from as little as 25 euros.
The German vacationer does not have to fear points in Flensburg or any driving bans, these can only be pronounced in the respective country.
The Europe-wide enforcement of fines is carried out by the Federal Office of Justice BfJ if a German traffic offender does not comply with the demands of the foreign authorities. The foreign authorities commission the BfJ in such cases.
Furthermore, if you have to pay a fine in other European countries, but this would be due in non-EU countries, you cannot be prosecuted in Germany. These include claims from Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Norway, for example.
Henry Ely / Editor finanzen.net
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