A fine for entering a low emission zone involves two rules that do different things and are constantly confused. The municipal ordinance decides which vehicles may drive in the zone, and the Traffic Act (Royal Legislative Decree 6/2015) sets the penalty, which is a 200 euro fine for a serious infringement, with no loss of licence points, reduced to 100 euros if paid within twenty calendar days of notification. Like any city council traffic fine, it is imposed by the mayor for conduct on urban roads, it follows the procedure laid down in the Traffic Act and, once paid at the reduced rate, it can only be challenged before the administrative court.
Royal Decree 953/2026, of 4 November, amends Royal Decree 1052/2022, which regulates low emission zones. It does not touch the amount of the fine or the deadlines, because both are set by a statute that a royal decree cannot alter. What it does reach is the framework that municipal ordinances must follow, and the ordinance is the document examined in almost every appeal.
The ordinance decides who may enter and the Traffic Act what it costs
Article 14 of Act 7/2021, on climate change and energy transition, requires municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants and island territories to establish low emission zones. Royal Decree 1052/2022 sets the minimum requirements those zones must meet. Neither of them says which car may drive down a given street, because each council decides that in its own ordinance, with its own perimeter, timetable and exceptions for residents, persons with reduced mobility, services or historic vehicles.
The penalty, by contrast, is the same throughout Spain. Article 76, letter z3, of the Traffic Act classifies failure to respect the traffic restrictions of low emission zones as a serious infringement, and Article 80 punishes serious infringements with a fine of 200 euros. This infringement is not among those that deduct points from the licence.
In practical terms, you have not been fined for failing to display a sticker. You have been fined because the council considers that your vehicle, according to the environmental classification assigned to it in the Vehicle Register of the Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT), was not allowed into that zone on that day. Some ordinances also require the badge to be displayed, but what usually matters is the registered classification and what the ordinance in force on the date of the event allowed for that category. Checking that classification today on the DGT website is free and is the first thing worth verifying.
Nor is there any connection with road safety offences such as drink driving, which are criminal matters dealt with by an investigating court. Here the entire procedure is administrative.
What Royal Decree 953/2026 amends and what it leaves as it was
Royal Decree 953/2026 (BOE-A-2026-23268) is a regulation that amends another regulation. Under the principle of legality in sanctioning matters, the infringement, the amount of the fine, the early payment reduction, the deadlines for submissions and the limitation periods can only be regulated by statute, and they remain where they were, in the consolidated text of the Traffic Act. Anyone who has read that the fine goes up or down with the new royal decree has misread it.
Its effect reaches the driver by another route. Royal Decree 1052/2022 is the template for the ordinances, and when the template changes councils have to review theirs. That raises two questions in any file. The first is which version of the ordinance was in force on the day of entry into the zone, because that version applies and not the later one. The second is whether the later rule favours you, because Article 26.2 of Act 40/2015 provides that sanctioning provisions have retroactive effect insofar as they benefit the offender, even in respect of penalties not yet discharged.
An ordinance that has not been adapted, or that was adapted after the date of your penalty notice, is a point to be checked against the text in the Official State Gazette and the provincial gazette. In a 200 euro file nobody at the council will check it for you.
Penalty notice, decision or enforcement order, which document you have received
In low emission zones there is almost never an officer handing over a ticket. Cameras read the number plate, the system checks it against the DGT register and a document arrives weeks later. What you can still do depends on which document it is.
- Notification of the penalty notice. It opens the procedure. From the day after receipt you have twenty calendar days to pay at the reduced rate or to make submissions.
- Request to identify the driver. It usually comes in the same document when the notice is addressed to the registered keeper. It has its own deadline and its own penalty if ignored.
- Sanctioning decision. The council has already decided, with or without submissions. What remains is an appeal for reconsideration or the court.
- Enforcement order. The fine is final, it was not paid and it is being claimed with a surcharge. What can be raised at this stage is very limited.
Keep the envelope and note the exact date on which you received it or accessed the electronic notification. That date governs every deadline, and three months from now you will not remember it.
A word on what is not a notification. A text message with a link to pay a fine is not a channel provided for by law, which recognises only the Electronic Road Address, the post and the official notice board. If you have paid through such a link, your problem is a different one, and I deal with it in the article on bank impersonation scams.
Traffic fine from Madrid, Seville or Málaga City Council, who handles it
The power to sanction infringements committed on urban roads lies with the mayor, under Article 84 of the Traffic Act. Who manages the file and who collects varies from city to city, and that determines which online office you must use and to which body each document is addressed.
In Madrid the City Council itself handles it, and its mobility ordinance also distinguishes between the general zone and the special protection zones, with different access rules. In Seville management lies with the Agencia Tributaria de Sevilla, which is a municipal body and has nothing to do with the national tax authority. In Málaga the municipal tax management body is involved, and in Barcelona the Institut Municipal d’Hisenda. Many medium-sized municipalities delegate collection to a body of the provincial council, so the letter bears a letterhead that the person fined does not associate with the fine.
The competent body always appears on the notification itself, together with the file number. If the fine comes from a city other than your own, nothing changes. Documents are filed through the electronic registry from anywhere, and the debt, if it reaches enforcement, follows you to your home address and your accounts.
A Coruña, Vigo and Santiago exceed 50,000 inhabitants and are subject to the same obligation under Article 14. Each has its own ordinance and timetable, and the one to read is that of the municipality imposing the fine.
Paying the council traffic fine and what you sign up to by doing so
Payment is made with the details on the notification, through the online office of the council or the collecting body, or at collaborating banks with the payment slip. Any municipal website explains that. What they do not explain is what payment entails.
Article 94 of the Traffic Act regulates the abbreviated procedure. Whoever pays within twenty calendar days obtains the 50 per cent reduction and, in exchange, waives the right to make submissions, the procedure ends that same day without an express decision and the penalty is final from the moment of payment. Only judicial review before the administrative court remains, and its time limit starts the day after payment. An appeal after paying is possible, but only in court.
| Situation | Amount | Where it is regulated |
|---|---|---|
| Payment within twenty calendar days of notification | 100 euros | Article 94 of the Traffic Act |
| Fine without reduction | 200 euros | Article 80.1 of the Traffic Act |
| Registered keeper who fails to identify the driver | 600 euros, no reduction | Articles 77 j, 80.2 and 94 of the Traffic Act |
| Final fine unpaid, under enforcement | 200 euros plus a surcharge of 5, 10 or 20 per cent | Article 110 of the Traffic Act and Article 28 of the General Taxation Act |
The table reflects a single penalty notice. Cameras record every entry and notifications take time, so someone who enters the zone daily may accumulate several notices before receiving the first, and the sum is no longer 100 euros.
The request to identify the driver and the 600 euro fine
Liability for the infringement lies with whoever was driving, under Article 82 of the Traffic Act. Since the camera only sees the number plate, the notice is served on the registered keeper, who is required to state within twenty calendar days who was driving the vehicle if it was someone else.
Failing to reply costs more than the original fine. Article 77, letter j, treats breach of that duty as a very serious infringement, and Article 80.2 punishes it with three times the fine laid down for the original infringement where that infringement is serious. That is 600 euros, and the early payment reduction does not apply to this penalty.
If you were driving, paying at the reduced rate amounts to identifying yourself. If someone else was driving, the identification must be complete and made in time, because a defective identification is treated as if it did not exist. For vehicles registered to a company, the request arrives at the company’s electronic address, and a mailbox that nobody opens is one of the ways in which a minor debt ends up on the director’s desk.
The notification that never arrived, the Electronic Road Address and the notice board
Article 90 of the Traffic Act orders notification at the Electronic Road Address (Dirección Electrónica Vial) for those who have one. Legal persons are obliged to have one and individuals may register voluntarily. Those who do not have one are notified at the address held in the DGT registers.
Those are the two points where deadlines are lost without the person fined knowing. An electronic notification not accessed within ten calendar days is deemed rejected and the procedure continues. A letter sent to an old address never updated with the traffic authority is, after the failed attempts, published on the Single Official Notice Board of the Official State Gazette under Article 91, and that also takes effect.
The result is that some people first learn of their fine when their bank account is seized. In that case what is reviewed is whether notification was carried out as the law requires, because a defective notification affects everything that follows. Checking today which address the DGT holds for you, and whether you have an active Electronic Road Address, takes ten minutes.
On what grounds a low emission zone penalty can be challenged
The grounds depend on the file, but the terrain examined is always the same.
The ordinance is reviewed, in the version in force on the day of the event, along with whether it has been adapted to Royal Decree 1052/2022 following its amendment. Several low emission zone ordinances have been annulled in whole or in part by the regional high courts, and Article 73 of Act 29/1998 provides that the annulment of a general provision does not affect final acts, except where it entails the exclusion or reduction of penalties not yet fully enforced. A fine that was appealed and a fine that was accepted are not left in the same position.
The facts are reviewed, that is, whether the vehicle was actually excluded, whether any exception in the ordinance applied to it and whether the signage at the access point existed and was as required. And the procedure is reviewed, with the limitation period of Article 112, which is six months for a serious infringement, the lapse of the procedure if a year passes from its start without a decision, and the regularity of the notifications.
What you can do is gather the material. Useful items are photographs of the access point you used and its signage, the vehicle registration certificate, the vehicle’s classification with the DGT and any permit or residence registration that entitled you to enter. With that and the notification, at the firm we review the file and tell you whether there is a basis for submissions before the reduction period expires. You can send it to us through the contact page. How the submissions are framed is the lawyer’s work.
What happens if you do not pay the council fine
Ignoring the notification stops nothing. For serious infringements that do not deduct points, Article 95.4 of the Traffic Act provides that, if within twenty calendar days there is neither payment nor submissions, the penalty notice itself takes effect as the sanctioning decision and may be enforced thirty calendar days after its notification. No further document will offer a second chance.
Once the penalty is final, Article 110 allows fifteen calendar days to pay the 200 euros. After that an enforcement order is issued with the surcharges of Article 28 of the General Taxation Act, which range from 5 to 20 per cent depending on when payment is made, plus late payment interest where applicable. If payment is still not made, the Administration seizes assets on its own authority, without going through a judge, including bank accounts, wages within the legal limits or tax refunds.
The fine becomes time-barred four years after it is final, but every notified collection step interrupts that period. Waiting for it to lapse almost never works.
If the council dismisses the appeal, the administrative court
The sanctioning decision ends the administrative route. An appeal for reconsideration may be lodged against it within one month before the same body. It is optional, it does not suspend enforcement and it is deemed dismissed if not decided within one month, under Article 96 of the Traffic Act. It is also possible to go directly to the administrative court within two months, under Act 29/1998.
In court a lawyer is required, the case follows the abbreviated procedure and the rule applies that the losing party may be ordered to pay costs. For a single 200 euro fine, the cost of litigation normally exceeds the amount in dispute. The sum changes when there are several penalties with the same defect, when surcharges and seizures have accumulated on a badly served notification or when the ordinance applied has been annulled or is under challenge.
Frequently asked questions
How do I pay a city council traffic fine?
It is paid with the file number or reference shown on the notification, at the online office of the council or of the body collecting on its behalf, or at a collaborating bank with the payment slip. If you pay within twenty calendar days of notification, the amount is halved and you waive the right to make submissions.
How do I pay a Seville City Council traffic fine?
Seville City Council traffic fines are managed by the Agencia Tributaria de Sevilla, which is a municipal body. They are paid at its online office with the details on the notification or at collaborating banks with the payment slip. The 50 per cent reduction and its effects are the same as in any other municipality.
How do I pay a Madrid City Council traffic fine?
It is paid at the online office of Madrid City Council with the file details shown on the notification, or at collaborating banks. Payment within twenty calendar days reduces the low emission zone fine from 200 to 100 euros and closes the administrative route, so that afterwards the only option is to go to court.
How do I appeal a city council traffic fine?
First, submissions are made within twenty calendar days of notification of the penalty notice, without paying, before the body named in the document. If the council imposes the penalty, an appeal for reconsideration may be lodged within one month or a judicial review claim within two months. Making submissions means losing the 50 per cent reduction, so the decision must be taken within that first period.
Is it better to pay or to appeal the council fine?
With a single 200 euro fine and no visible defect in the notification, the ordinance or the facts, it is better to pay the 100 euros. Appealing is worthwhile when several notices have accumulated, when the vehicle was entitled to enter, when notification was defective or when the ordinance applied has been annulled or is out of date. That assessment must be made before paying.
What deadline do I have to pay, make submissions or appeal, and from when does it run?
You have twenty calendar days to pay at the reduced rate, to make submissions or to identify the driver, counted from the day after notification of the penalty notice. Against the decision there is one month for the appeal for reconsideration and two months for judicial review, from the day after its notification. If you paid at the reduced rate, the two months run from the day after payment.
A hundred euros now or contesting the penalty, the sum you need to do
The useful question is how much money is really at stake and whether there is a defect that can be shown with a document. Being right in the abstract carries little weight in that decision.
If you have a single penalty notice, your vehicle was not allowed in under the ordinance in force that day and the notification reached you properly, pay the 100 euros within the deadline. Appealing will cost you more than it saves and you do not need a lawyer for that.
The answer is different if several notices have arrived in a row, if the identification request has turned into 600 euros, if you learned of the fine through a seizure or if your vehicle was authorised and the system failed to recognise it. It is also different if the ordinance applied to you has been annulled or does not reflect the changes made by Royal Decree 953/2026. In those cases paying means closing the administrative route and waiving your submissions, and the twenty calendar days run from the day after notification.
At the firm we review the notification, the ordinance and the file, and tell you in figures whether it is worth making submissions, appealing or paying. You can call +34 677 841 007 or write to us through the contact page.