It was a ritual for all motorists since 1986. Every year, every owner of a vehicle had to carefully slide their little green sticker on their windshield to certify that they were properly insured. In the absence of this butterfly or failure to present the insurance certificate, the green card, any driver is exposed to a fixed fine of 35 euros in the event of an inspection. But from April 1, the green car insurance sticker will no longer be compulsory and will therefore disappear.
“No more fines because it is not displayed on the windshield, no more long paperwork, no more printing of this sticker which has a significant ecological cost of almost 1,200 tonnes of CO2 per year”, wrote in December on X the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, welcoming “good news for motorists” and “a measure of common sense”. As for insurers, we are also delighted with this decision announced this summer by Gérald Darmanin. “This goes in the direction of simplifying procedures for our members,” underlines Gwenaël Simon, insurance director at Groupama Loire Bretagne.
Fight against fraud and falsified vignettes
So obviously, the removal of the green butterfly does not change the rules because you will still need to be insured to drive a car or two-wheeler. Instead of the sticker, each insured vehicle will be registered in a dematerialized file, the FVA (Insured Vehicle File), which has already been accessible to law enforcement since January 1st.
Because the removal of the famous sticker aims above all to fight against fraud, which is still massive: between 800,000 and 900,000 people are believed to be driving without insurance in France. Thanks to a simple statement of the registration plate, police officers and gendarmes will be able, via the FVA, to consult whether the vehicle is insured or not. “This will make it possible in particular to track down false stickers,” believes Gwenaël Simon.
A memo delivered to all policyholders
For those who are stuck, dematerialization of the green card will not require any action since your vehicle is already registered in the file of insured vehicles. A simple click on the site in question allows you to check if this is indeed the case.
All policyholders will also soon receive “an insured vehicle memo”, a sort of insurance certificate with all the information relating to your contract as well as the numbers to contact in the event of a breakdown or accident. This document will be particularly useful to new policyholders, who will be able to present it to the police in the event of an inspection until their vehicle is properly registered in the file.