Amsterdam to clamp cars of foreign visitors who skip parking fines
Starting July 1, 2026, foreign visitors who fail to pay parking fees in Amsterdam will face immediate consequences: their cars will be immobilized with wheel clamps. The measure targets drivers from countries where the city currently struggles to collect fines, including France, Poland, Hungary, and Luxembourg. Currently, only 24 percent of fines left on windshields are paid, suggesting non-payers are aware of limited enforcement options, the municipality of Amsterdam reported in a press release.
Amsterdam has grappled with unpaid parking fines from foreign visitors for over a decade. In 2015, the city reintroduced wheel clamps to enforce payment after discovering that tourists from countries without address-exchange agreements could leave without settling fines, costing the municipality millions of euros annually. Pieter Lijtens, then alderman for Traffic, told the press that some foreign visitors “knowingly do not pay for parking because they know that the debt is not collected in their country,” a practice widely discussed online.
Statistics highlight the problem: last year, more than 6,100 fines were issued to French visitors, but only 21 percent were paid.
Collecting parking fines from abroad remains a challenge. While agreements exist with several countries—including Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Austria, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland—allowing fines to be mailed to residents’ home addresses, the payment rate for visitors from other nations remains very low.
To address this, Amsterdam will expand its wheel clamp program, adding three new teams to the existing two. These five teams are expected to place approximately 15,000 wheel clamps annually, of which roughly 10,000 will be on foreign-registered vehicles. Visitors caught will be required to pay the parking fee, the fine, and clamping costs, totaling around 250 euros.
Alderman Melanie van der Horst, responsible for Traffic and Transport, said: “Ideally, I would prefer all visitors to simply pay for parking properly, so that we don’t have to issue any fines at all. But when we do, I want everyone to pay. It’s just not fair that non-payers from countries we cannot make agreements with can so easily avoid a parking fine, while domestic visitors and visitors from countries that are cooperative, do have to pay. With wheel clamps we can solve that problem directly.” Authorities will communicate the new enforcement approach in the coming months through multiple channels to warn foreign drivers.
Visitors from countries with established agreements will continue to receive fines at home if they fail to pay. From January 1, the United Kingdom will join that list. Since 2024, visitors from these countries have been subject to mailed fines for unpaid parking.
