Ghent to collect more traffic fines from foreign LEZ offenders

As of October, the Ghent City Council will be able to collect traffic fines in 22 additional European countries, from Spain to Italy to Poland. Previously, this was limited to a few neighboring countries. A European cooperation and the involvement of two Dutch companies makes the fine policy possible.

It involves violations of parking policies, car-free zones and the low-emission zone (LEZ), among others. Every year in Ghent, there are some 217,400 traffic violations by drivers with a European license plate.

No LEZ registration in advance

For the Netherlands, Germany, and France, good for about half of foreign fees, the city already cooperated with collection agencies, so those drivers receive a payment invitation. However, other foreigners, for example, could enter the LEZ with an old car with impunity.

After all, all drivers with foreign license plates – except for the Dutch – must register their cars with the LEZ in advance, but that hardly happened, as the figures prove, because, in 2022, no fewer than 166,206 foreign cars drove into the LEZ unregistered.

As a result, by 2023, three years after the introduction of the LEZ, the city had already failed to collect as much as 39 million euros in fines, according to council member Anneleen Van Bossuyt (N-VA).

With the help of the Dutch

The new European cooperation will now put a stop to this practice. According to the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, Ghent will cooperate with two Dutch companies specializing in international debt collection, ACCS International BV from Eindhoven and Flanderijn from Rotterdam, to collect fines. The companies will send the first letter and a bailiff if no payment has been made after months.

According to initial calculations, the City of Ghent could receive some 4 million euros extra annually. At the same time, the two companies will be paid 20 to 70% of the fine, with the percentage varying from country to country.