(de-news.net) – The demands put forward by the Länder for a comprehensive prohibition on smartphone applications that warn motorists of speed enforcement have been rejected by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport. A spokesperson for Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder emphasized that existing legislation already makes it unlawful to operate or to carry in a ready-to-use state any technical device intended to display, signal, or interfere with traffic surveillance measures. From the ministry’s perspective, improvements in road safety are less dependent on expanding the scope of statutory bans than on ensuring consistent enforcement and the application of effective penalties. In this framework, primary responsibility for inspection intensity, monitoring practices, and prosecution lies with the Länder themselves, which are charged with implementing and enforcing traffic regulations on the ground.

By contrast, the Länder are pressing for a significant tightening of the current legal framework in the context of the proposed reform of the Road Traffic Act. In a Bundesrat statement, they argue that enforcement should no longer hinge on incidental discoveries made during routine police checks. They maintain that applications designed to alert drivers to speed controls serve no legitimate purpose beyond the deliberate circumvention of law enforcement. To support their position, the Länder point to countries such as France, where both the use and possession of such applications are prohibited, and they contend that German rules should be brought into closer alignment with regulatory practices elsewhere in Europe, particularly given that these apps are often marketed explicitly as tools for avoiding penalties.

Under the current German legal regime, sanctions are imposed only when active use of a speed-warning application is detected, resulting in a fine of 75 euros and one point recorded in the Flensburg driving register. In France, by contrast, a broader prohibition on possession already applies, reflecting a more restrictive regulatory approach. The disagreement highlights a fundamental policy debate over whether future traffic safety objectives are better achieved through stricter statutory prohibitions or through more robust and systematic enforcement of the rules already in place.