How your dash cam could land you a £9,000 fine or even see you jailed abroad – and the UK laws on recording the road
BRITISH motorists planning on driving abroad need to be aware of dash cam laws across Europe which could land them in hot water.
The recording devices are banned in some countries on the continent, putting drivers at risk of hefty fines and even jail time.
While it’s perfectly legal to film public roads in the UK, dash cams are explicitly illegal in Austria, where authorities can fine users £9,000 (€10,000) – and as much as £22,000 (€25,000) for repeat offenders.
In-car cameras are also banned in Luxembourg, where anyone found to have filmed a public area can face prison time.
Portugal has also outlawed dash cams, making it illegal to own or use one.
And a number of EU countries allow drivers to film the road, but impose restrictions when it comes to sharing and using footage.
Locations where dash cams are prohibited or restricted
- Austria: Banned entirely. Carry fines of up to £22,000 for repeat offenders
- Portugal: Banned entirely
- Luxembourg: Legal to own, but illegal to use to film a public space. Offenders could face jail time
- Belgium: Legal to own and use. Restricted to private use only
- France: Legal to own and use. Restricted to private use only. Recorded evidence must only be sent straight to the police
- Germany: Legal to own and use, but illegal to upload footage to social media unless faces and number plates are obscured
- Norway: Legal to own and use. Must not be installed in driver’s view
- Switzerland: Technically legal, but heavily restricted. Can’t be used for entertainment or documenting a journey. Other drivers must know they are being recorded. Other privacy laws prevent filming of people, places or cars not involved in an incident
- United States: Restricted under certain state laws
- UK: Legal to own and use. Illegal to record audio without notifiying passengers/drivers. Legal for police to demand your own footage to prosecute you
Germany allows the use of dash cams, but it has outlawed the posting of any traffic footage to social media as a violation of privacy.
Both France and Belgium outline them as “private use” only, meaning footage cannot be shared publicly and motorists need to inform other drivers before they share clips with police if there’s a collision.
In the UK, while the recording devices are legal to use on the road and footage can be shared, owners can also have their cameras used against them for cases of speeding and other motoring offences.
If a driver is pulled over by police for a motoring offence, cops have the right to ask the driver to submit their own dash cam footage for review.
This is because the clip can be used to solve disputes such as speeding with officers using the GPS function to determine how fast you were going.
If you try to prevent police from getting hold of this footage or tamper with it in any way, you could face serious charges of perverting the course of justice.
Locations where dash cams are entirely legal without restriction
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Denmark
- Italy
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Serbia
- Spain
- Sweden
Tim Shallcross, head of technical policy and advice at IAM Roadsmart, said: “The dash cam can be a double-edged sword.
“It may show that you were not to blame in a crash, but the camera itself and any memory card used with it can be seized by the police if they suspect an offence has been committed.
“The internet now has lots of examples of drivers and riders who have been convicted on the evidence of their own helmet camera or dash cam.”
The road laws you need to know
In Britain, there are also strict privacy laws surrounding the use of dash cams inside a vehicle.
If you install a recording device that also captures footage or audio from inside a car, and you share the motor with other drivers, you can be charged with breaching these laws if you don’t make it clear the camera’s in use.
The rule also applies to taxis, as passengers must immediately be made aware they are being recorded when they get in the cab, or the driver can face a serious breach of privacy law.
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