The scene is repeated in the streets of Paris, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Marseille. Parked cars now display an unexpected accessory: cardboard boxes, tea towels, or even surgical masks covering their license plates.
This trend, which may make one smile, hides a more complex reality: the desire to escape the LAPI (Automated Reading of License Plates) system deployed by municipalities to control paid parking.
The phenomenon has taken on a new dimension since a Parisian lawyer specializing in the defense of motorists published a viral video on TikTok. Viewed more than 2.8 million times, this presents this technique as an effective defense against to “PV sulphators”. The principle is simple: by hiding your plate, you prevent the inspection vehicle equipped with the LAPI system from scanning the registration and therefore checking whether parking has been paid for.
This practice particularly affects urban areas where parking has become a real financial headache for residents. Parisian construction site employees, in particular, regularly use this tip to avoid fines during their interventions. Other creative variations have also appeared: parking on a slope against facades, use of rainproof tarpaulins for two-wheelers, or even strategic placement next to other vehicles.
A vague legal framework which questions
Defenders of this practice rely on what they consider to be a legal loophole. Article R317-8 of the Highway Code stipulates that the plates must be “ fixed in evidence » and maintained in a state allowing the inscriptions to be read. But this text, written well before the advent of automated controls, leaves room for different interpretations.
The question of liability is also problematic. How to prove who hid the plate? A malicious neighbor could theoretically hide the plates of an entire neighborhood. This legal gray area fuels debates between motorists and authorities, each defending their own reading of the texts.
Risks that can exceed the expected savings
Municipalities are not remaining idle in the face of these practices. In Toulouse, for example, public highway surveillance agents (ASVP) have adapted their response. When they spot a vehicle with hidden plates, they switch to manual mode and can impose a double penalty: 35 euros for non-payment of parking, to which can be added 135 euros for illegible plate.
Case law also leans towards the side of the authorities. A ruling from the Court of Cassation in 2015 specifies that the offense concerning the readability of plates “concerns the equipment of the vehicle and not its driving” and can therefore be noted even on a stationary vehicle. This decision gives a solid legal basis to the fines.
It is also important to note that while the debate currently focuses on parking, Manipulating registration plates on the road (greasing, changing characters) constitutes a much more serious offense which may result in criminal prosecution.
- Hiding license plates exposes you to a double fine of up to 170 euros
- This increasingly common practice is of course illegal
- If the savings made on parking are substantial, be careful of the legal risks involved
