12,500 French parking fines cancelled after IT bug

More than 12,500 parking tickets have been cancelled in an eastern France town after a computer problem led to the issuing of ‘unjustified’ fines.

Pierre Cuny, the mayor of Thionville (Moselle, Grand Est) cancelled the fines, which had been issued between June 1 and December 9. The system had recently been privatised however a computer ‘bug’ led to thousands of drivers being incorrectly issued with tickets.

One resident said that she had received around 250 fines totalling €7,500 for apparent ‘parking offences’, which she denied. It later emerged that the tickets had indeed been sent in error due to a computer bug, reported specialist car site Automobile Magazine.

“We could not allow residents to suffer the consequences of a malfunction for which they were not responsible,” said Mr Cuny, after taking the decision to cancel the wrongly-issued fines.

Read also: Why parking fines in France are now more likely to be cancelled 

Privatisation and automatisation of road fines

Parking and road fines are typically a major source of revenue for authorities in France, figures suggest. 

A report by the Cour des Comptes (national audit office) from May showed that in 2023, road fines (including parking and speeding offences) generated more than €2 billion in revenue nationwide.

Read more: Driving fine bonanza as France increases number of speed cameras 

The Thionville issue came soon after the town privatised and automated its parking fine system, with increasing numbers of French towns now taking this route. 

Many systems use patrol cars that drive through certain parts of town and - using cameras - automatically detect vehicles that are in breach of parking rules.

Read also: Drivers sent speeding fines in error due to camera pointing wrong way
Read more: French speed cameras set to detect more types of offences 

Yet, there are fears that these automated systems may lead to a higher number of errors.