Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court bans speed camera app even for front-seat passenger

With the help of a speed camera app, you can always keep track of impending speed traps in your car. However, the whole thing is not legal. After all, the use of digital protection against impending speed camera photos in the mailbox at home was prohibited by the courts some time ago. What already applies to the driver of the vehicle now extends to the passenger(s). Thus, a court has now decided that so-called speed camera warning devices are also prohibited for all other vehicle occupants.

Speed camera app not allowed for passengers

At the Higher Regional Court in Karlsruhe, a verdict has now been handed down that should not please frequent and especially high-speed drivers. The court ruled that a so-called “speed camera app” is not only prohibited if the driver himself uses it. All other passengers are also not allowed to use the warning system for impending speed traps. This means that the existing ban on the use of such apps by drivers has been made even more specific and, above all, broader than before. The ruling is based on a case in which a man was driving at an excessive speed through the city of Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg in 2022. The man’s passenger had a smartphone with the speed camera app open next to her.

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After the man was stopped by police, the officers saw the smartphone lying between the driver and passenger with the speed camera app open. Because the man probably “deliberately pushed the device aside” during the check, the officers assumed that he knew about the speed camera app. As a result, the police officers imposed a fine of 100 euros. Since the driver did not want to pay the fine, he took the matter to court and now suffered a setback. His argumentation sounded watertight. The relevant § 23 Paragraph 1c Sentence 3 StVO states that a speed camera app may only not be used by the person “driving a vehicle”. Accordingly, since the ban on speed camera apps for vehicle drivers, corresponding smartphone applications advertise that passengers could use them.

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Judgement is legally binding

Since the ruling of the OLG Karlsruhe is considered legally binding, speed camera apps are henceforth not allowed for other occupants. The court thus also answers the question, which has been disputed for some time, of whether speed camera apps are allowed to advertise with this information at all. Even after the new court ruling, the use of such apps in the vehicle is possible, at least in theory. Thus, the ban should only apply if “the driver makes use of the app’s warning function.” How would one check that if one of the passengers verbally alerts the driver to an impending speed camera?