Quite a few visitors from abroad get fined while Switzerland – most commonly for speeding or illegal parking. But do they have to pay?
Say you are not even staying in Switzerland but merely transiting through the country, and get slapped with a speeding or parking ticket while you are here..
Can you just disregard it, hoping Swiss police won’t be able to find you once you get out of the country?
The answer is: it depends on where in the world you live.
Location, location, location
This phrase is true not only in real estate, but also – to a certain degree – when it comes to breaking the law.
If you live within the EU, and especially in one of the neighbour states, you will not be able to stay under the radar for long – both literally and figuratively – if you break Swiss traffic rules.
Due to bilateral agreements allowing various governments to exchange driver data, a number of countries cooperate on the enforcement of traffic fines.
Specifically, they do it through the European Car and Driving Licence Information System (Eucaris), which holds records of all vehicle owners in Europe.
This means that if a radar or speed camera catches you speeding, or you find a parking ticket under your wiper, you should not avoid paying it.
What happens if you don’t?
Europe is a close-knit community, so the exchange of driver information between countries means you will receive the ticket sooner or later, along with the instructions on how to pay it.
If you still don’t, you could probably get away with it, provided you never, ever cross a border into Switzerland again.
But know that traffic violations and unpaid fines, especially considerable ones, are registered in a Swiss database of traffic offenders, so you could be be intercepted when entering the country (or even the Schengen zone) next time.
The situation is more complicated when people from outside the European Union and EFTA (Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein) are slapped with fines.
Since Switzerland has no agreements regulating mutual fine collection with those countries (except the UK), you will probably get away with not paying – especially if you never return to Switzerland or Schengen.
READ MORE: How visitors to Switzerland can avoid driving penalties
Swiss politicians are, however, are trying to remedy this loophole.
In 2025, deputy Ursula Zybach filed a motion in the Parliament asking the Federal Council to investigate possible options for collecting fines from residents of non-Schengen countries.
So far, nothing has been done, however.
And then, there are prisons
In cases of serious traffic infractions, foreign motorists can even end up behind (Swiss) bars.
Several years ago, for instance, in two separate incidents, six UK drivers were caught red-handed (or hot-footed, in this case) while speeding on Swiss roads in their sport cars, and were sanctioned immediately.
Police not only confiscated their driver licenses and cars on the spot, but also put them in jail until they could appear in court for sentencing.
In the end, they all had to pay (immediate) hefty fines, before Brexiting Switzerland.
So in certain cases – when, for instance, you live outside the EU/EFTA and your infraction is deemed serious – you too could end up in a Swiss jail as well.
