Highway Code: a crackdown on motor insurance: fines of up to 4,000 euros for those driving without cover

Monthly checks against the databases, thirty days to rectify the situation, and an indefinite driving ban for those who fail to do so. The revision of the Highway Code called for by the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini and provisionally approved by the Council of Ministers on 13 October, introduces a major crackdown on those who breach the obligation to take out third-party motor insurance for driving on public roads (according to estimates by ANIA, in 2025 there were 2.8 million vehicles without compulsory insurance cover). Fines are also set to rise: the Technical Report accompanying the draft legislative decree indicates that fines for driving without cover will rise from €866–€3,464 to €1,000–€4,000, with an indefinite driving ban and a 15-day driving suspension.

The first measure is the responsibility of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. Article 14 provides for monthly checks to identify vehicles that are not insured. Owners are notified that they have been included on the relevant list and are invited to rectify the situation or to provide evidence of one of the grounds for exemption or suspension provided for in the Private Insurance Code. The deadline is thirty days from notification. If the situation is not rectified within that period and no reasons are provided to justify the lack of cover, the Ministry will impose an indefinite driving ban.

This is a ‘preventative mechanism for identifying the relevant situations, notifying those concerned and subsequently regularising the situation’, as explained in the Technical Report accompanying the Legislative Decree, which will now go through the parliamentary process for consultation. The ban is recorded in the registers: for vehicles registered in Italia, the imposition and lifting of the ban are communicated electronically to the National Vehicle Register. At the next roadside check of a vehicle already subject to the ban, ‘the procedure for the seizure of the vehicle is triggered immediately’.

The owner must ensure that the vehicle is not used without insurance, even when it is lawfully in the possession of another person. A fine of between 1,000 and 4,000 euros is imposed for breaching this obligation. If a false or forged insurance certificate is presented, the fine rises to 1,400–5,600 euros, with the vehicle being impounded and the driver banned from driving for thirty days.

The absence of insurance also affects other offences: the scheme provides for the penalty to be doubled when an offence is committed with a vehicle lacking the compulsory cover, whilst excluding the fine for the lack of insurance itself. For those who rectify the situation promptly, however, a reduction of one-fifth will apply if they comply within thirty days. To lift the driving ban resulting from driving without insurance, Annex III.1 requires verification that the fine has been paid within the specified time limit and that suitable cover has been taken out ‘without the need for the investigating authority to verify compliance itself’.