New proposals seek to clamp down on people using phones while driving in Germany. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Jan Woitas
Drivers in Germany could face a €500 penalty for using a phone at the wheel, while new cameras may make offences much easier to detect. Here is what could change – and what the rules say now.
Using a handheld phone while driving in Germany currently carries a standard fine of €100 and one penalty point. That point is recorded in Germany’s central register of driving offences in Flensburg – often referred to simply as “points in Flensburg”.
If you endanger somebody else, the fine rises to €150. If you cause an accident, it increases to €200. Both of these more serious offences also carry two points and a one-month driving ban.
Those rules remain in place for now. But two proposals could make the consequences much tougher – cameras designed to spot phones inside vehicles across Germany, and an increase in the standard fine to at least €500.
Don't miss our journalists' daily news roundup from Germany
The proposals come amid growing concern about distraction on German roads. According to Federal Statistics Office figures cited by the German Road Safety Council, the use of electronic devices was recorded as the cause of more than 1,100 accidents involving injury in 2025.
Fifteen people died, 199 were seriously injured and 1,257 suffered minor injuries.
Federal Transport Minister Steffen Bilger, of the conservative CDU, wants to enable nationwide use of so-called “monocams”. The cameras are already being used in Rhineland-Palatinate, currently the only state with a legal framework for them.
Typically mounted on motorway bridges or overpasses and angled downwards, a high-resolution camera takes pictures through vehicle windscreens. The system looks for a phone near the driver and checks the position of the driver’s hands.
READ ALSO: Driving in Germany - What are the offences that can cost you points on your licence?
Any images flagged as possible offences are then checked by police officers. In other words, the technology identifies suspicious images, but it does not make the final decision.
Bilger says the cameras would make the existing rules easier to enforce. They could catch behaviour that police officers standing beside a road might struggle to see.
Creating a consistent nationwide legal basis for using the cameras would reportedly require an amendment to Germany’s Road Traffic Act. For now, however, there is no clear timetable for changing the law or introducing the cameras nationwide.
The German Road Safety Council (DVR) supports Bilger’s camera proposal – but it also wants much higher fines. The Berlin-based nonprofit organisation represents more than 200 groups from politics, business, research and civil society.
DVR president Manfred Wirsch called the cameras “an extremely sensible investment”. He argues that people are less likely to pick up a phone if they know they could be caught at any time.
READ ALSO: How anti-social driving can cost you your licence in Germany
But the council also believes the current €100 standard fine is too low and wants it raised to at least €500 – an amount the DVR compares with the fine for breaking Germany’s 0.5-per-mille blood-alcohol limit.
Until one or both proposals become law, the practical rules remain unchanged. Drivers may use a hands-free system, Bluetooth headset or permanently installed in-car system, but they must not pick up a phone or hold it to their ear while driving.
The proposed €500 fine is not yet in force, but the existing €100–€200 penalties are.
READ ALSO: What you need to know before selling your car in Germany
Become a member or log in to continue reading
More
Comments
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at news@thelocal.de.