Amsterdam to clamp down on tourists who don’t pay for parking

Traffic wardens in Amsterdam will start clamping cars from countries where parking fines cannot be collected by post from next July, city officials said on Thursday.

At the moment, drivers from countries without a reciprocal agreement with the Netherlands are given a paper fine on their windscreen, but only 24% of them actually pay.

Agreements to exchange vehicle information already exist with Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Austria, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Since 2024, visitors from these countries have been sent fines at home if they fail to pay for parking. Britain will join the list on 1 January.

The clamp policy targets countries with no such agreements, including France, Poland, Hungary and Luxembourg. Three extra clamp teams will be recruited and trained in the coming months, bringing the total to five and allowing around 15,000 clamps a year.

Officials expect some 10,000 will be placed on cars with foreign licence plates.

Visitors will have to settle the parking fee, the fine and clamping charges before the clamp is removed – a cost of around €250.

City transport chief Melanie van der Horst said she would “prefer all visitors to pay for parking properly”, but said the current situation is unfair to domestic motorists and those from countries that do exchange information.