Dashcams in Europe

[Osinjak]

Toying with the idea of a dash cam after some kind soul ran into my last car whilst parked and caused 1000s worth of damage - thanks for that you weapons grade bell end. Anyway, I drive overseas a fair bit through France, Belgium, Deutschland, Switzerland maybe, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia. Researching online and it seems they have restricted use in France and Germany and are completely banned in Austria. Has anyone fallen foul of this and what was the outcome? I don't particularly want to get into a roadside debate with Austrian plod and end up having to rip out an expensive system.

[davek_964]

I was aware of restrictions on things that warn you about speed cameras - i.e. sat nav - but didn't know there was anything wrong with a dash cam. Pretty sure I had mine in my car when I drove down to Italy in 2016, and the police lady that pulled me over (can't remember where - Switzerland perhaps?) didn't seem to care.

You can pick up decent cameras for ~£50 and wire it into the fuse box pretty easily, so even if they did confiscate it - it's not really all that much.

[tivver500]

Until recently dash cams were illegal in Germany but that has now been rescinded so you're ok. Don't know about Austria though....

[IJWS15]

I take mine off in Belgium (forgot last time) and Switzerland.

No issues in six trips with one including France, Luxembourg and Germany in addition to the above.

[Honestherbert]

I can almost understand antispeed detection devices being illlegal but does anyone know the logic behind dashcams being illegal? I can see no benefit to this at all?

[Krikkit]

Honestherbert said:

I can almost understand antispeed detection devices being illlegal but does anyone know the logic behind dashcams being illegal? I can see no benefit to this at all?

A lot of the time it's wound up with privacy laws - Germany and Austria in particular are quite restricted, to the point where Google simply didn't bother with Street View in Germany as there was too much processing needed blanking out houses/people etc.

[Osinjak]

Reading around that's what it seems to be all about, privacy laws.

[Haltamer]

Hmm; Whilst faintly aware of the dashcam regulations in Germany, I've never particularly bothered doing anything to mine when driving through France, Belgium, Germany or the Netherlands. (Didn't get pulled either!)