If you are caught speeding in Switzerland, you have to pay significantly higher fines than in Germany. However, many drivers from Germany who were caught speeding in the neighboring country have so far tried to simply wait out the payment requests. This could be over now.
Because Germans who are noticed as parking illegally or speeding in Switzerland will in future be asked to pay more forcefully at home. The same applies to Swiss people who violate traffic rules in Germany. On Friday night, the Bundestag passed a bill on cross-border police and judicial cooperation with Switzerland. The law is intended to newly regulate the jurisdiction and the procedure, including legal protection, for requests for enforcement assistance. This should also make it easier to collect fines in the future.
The fines are much higher in Switzerland than here. If you exceed the parking time in Germany by more than three hours, for example, you will pay a maximum of 40 euros. If you park in Switzerland for up to four hours too long, you have to pay 64 euros; if you park between four and ten hours too long, you have to pay 106 euros.
Speeding violations are also significantly more expensive in the neighboring country. If you drive up to ten kilometers per hour too fast in Germany, you have to pay 20 euros. In Switzerland, if you exceed the speed limit by six to ten km/h, the equivalent of 127 euros is due within towns, 106 euros outside of town and 63 euros on motorways. For exceeding 50 km/h you will be charged at least 60 daily rates. In the case of serious violations, the amount of the penalty is based on income. A few years ago, a wealthy Zurich woman had to pay the equivalent of 175,000 euros after driving 43 km/h too fast in the city center.
For particularly serious violations, you can expect a penalty order in Switzerland
And sometimes a fine isn’t enough. For particularly serious violations in Switzerland you can even expect a penalty order. A driver from Baden-Württemberg who raced through the Gotthard Tunnel at 200 kilometers per hour in the summer of 2014 – with a maximum permitted speed of 80 km/h – was sentenced to 30 months in prison in Switzerland and was also given an absolute driving ban. At that time, Ticino’s justice director even tried to get his German colleagues to revoke the speeder’s driving license in Germany – and to imprison him.
Speeders and illegal parkers from Germany who did not pay their fines for violations in Switzerland previously only had to face consequences when they re-entered the country. If they were checked at the border or in the interior of the country, the police or border officials checked whether there were any outstanding claims. If you simply avoided Switzerland after a violation, it was difficult for the authorities there to collect the debt because there was no enforcement agreement in fine matters between the two countries. But after the Bundestag decision, this could soon be over.