Italy deactivates 850 speed cameras after new rules expose compliance issues
‘No more ghost speed cameras which were just a hidden tax on millions of workers’
Published
Italy is set to deactivate 850 speed cameras, amounting to some 21% of the country’s automatic speed cameras, after new government rules found that these devices did not meet updated approval requirements.
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport said that around 3,150 automatic speed cameras currently comply with the new regulations and can continue operating but the remaining 850 will have to stay switched off until manufacturers obtain the required approval of the devices.
Under these new requirements, the remaining speed cameras will need to undergo annual checks, blur the faces of drivers and passengers for privacy reasons and meet accuracy requirements, including a margin of error of less than 3% for speeds above 100km/h
“From a jungle of speed cameras to 3,150 regular and compliant devices,” Transport Minister Matteo Salvini wrote on X.
Da una giungla di oltre 10.000 autovelox, spesso nascosti e a ripetizione, a 3.150 apparecchi regolari e conformi. Basta autovelox fantasma, che erano solo una tassa occulta per milioni di lavoratori e non avevano nulla a che fare con la sicurezza stradale. Dalle parole ai fatti.
— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) July 11, 2026
He then continued to describe these cameras as “hidden tax”, “no more ghost speed cameras, which were just a hidden tax on millions of workers and had nothing to do with road safety,” he said.
The controversy over Italy’s speed cameras has already led to legal disputes, including a case in Galatina, southern Italy, where the municipality was ordered to reimburse around €60,000 to motorists after a speed camera was found not to have the required certification.
Consumer group Codacons also commented that the new measure had arrived “with a huge delay”, adding that previous uncertainty had led some local authorities to switch off their speed cameras to avoid legal challenges, reports BFM Business.
The issue began back in 1992 when the new Highway Code was approved. The law required provision for the certification of speed cameras but did not specify what this procedure would be. For this reason, many of Italy’s cameras were ‘approved’ but not ‘certified’.
Then, following years of debate, in 2024, Italy’s Court of Cassation ruled that some speeding penalties issued by cameras that had only administrative approval could be challenged. The ruling triggered numerous challenges from motorists and led to some fines being cancelled.
The debate comes as Italy continues to face road-safety challenges as preliminary European Commission figures revealed that Italy recorded 49 deaths per million inhabitants in 2025, the same rate as France and above the 43 EU average.
