Let us be honest for a moment: not too long ago, when receiving a ticket from abroad, more often that not would said paper end up in the bin. Concerned drivers would often reason that the chances of facing repercussions were very low, which they really were.
However, in 2015, an EU cross-border directive put an end to this practice. The majority of regular traffic infringements, such as speeding, skipping red lights, driving under the influence, not wearing seatbelts, or being on the phone, now get transferred between countries.
How has this law been respected and applied thus far?
Our colleagues from RTL 5minutes consulted with a legal expert to determine a few facts around the situation.
First of all, if drivers are stopped while abroad, they mostly have to pay their fines on the spot, which does not leave them any room to escape. In the Grand Duchy for instance, police officers can also accept card payments.
Secondly, when a Luxembourgish license plate is registered abroad, foreign police departments receive the driver's information directly from Luxembourgish officials. This means that fines are forwarded to the Grand Duchy if they are not paid.
Thirdly, it can actually happen that a traffic infringement is too insignificant to justify the costly administrative process of sending fines back and forth, which means that they can be dropped straight away.
Unfortunately, the Luxembourgish authorities were not willing to provide much information on the implementation of the law. Nevertheless, our colleagues were able to gather a few interesting numbers and statistics.
In 2015, the Luxembourgish prosecutor's office received 149 intervention demands from abroad for unpaid violations committed by cars registered in the Grand Duchy: 82 from Germany, 30 from France, 17 from Belgium, and 2 from Austria.
In 2019, out of a total of 27,565 express letters for traffic infringements leading to a loss of points, 9,072 (32.91%) were sent abroad. During that same year, 50,143 contravention letters were sent from France to the Grand Duchy. This number was even higher in 2018 at 63,017.
French officials have confirmed that around 80% of those fines have been paid. They further note that the process could be facilitated through the implementation of EU-wide road safety regulations, which could impose universal limits on speed as well as alcohol consumption.
So overall: if you get a driving fine, unless it's too low to be worth collecting, you should expect to pay up!
