Italy Traffic Fines After a Car Rental: Speeding, Tolls, ZTL, Late Return and Damage Charges

Italy traffic fines rarely reach you while you are still on holiday. Weeks after you return a rental car, a charge of 20 to 50 EUR can appear on your card with no explanation. It is the rental company’s fee for passing your name to the police, and it means a traffic fine is on its way, sometimes more than a year later. In 2024 Italy’s competition authority ruled that charging private renters this fee is unfair and fined six of the biggest rental companies more than 18 million EUR. Some companies still charge it, and if you rented as a private person, you can ask for it back.

Fines are not the only surprise after a rental. A dirty car, a smell of smoke, a late return, missing fuel or a new scratch can all be charged weeks later. This guide explains each charge, what it costs at the companies we checked, how to tell a real fine from a fake one, how to pay or contest it, and how to avoid it. It is based on the rental companies’ own terms, Italian law and what we have seen on both sides of the rental desk.

Data last verified: November 2026. Written by Simas Krasaitis, founder of Autorentwiz and former head of car rental at ADCRent. How we check our facts: our editorial policy.

Short on time? The key facts:

• Fines arrive late: the police first write to the rental company, which gives them your details. The fine can reach you more than a year after the trip.
• Speeding: from 42 EUR (up to 10 km/h over the limit) to 3,382 EUR. Pay within 5 days of receiving the fine and you get 30% off.
• Motorway tolls: use a white lane (cash) or a blue Carte lane (cards), never a yellow Telepass lane. If you miss a payment, pay it online within 15 days.
• Handling fee: Italian authorities have ruled that charging private renters a fee for handling a fine is unfair. Many companies now charge it only to business customers, and a private renter can ask for it back.
• Fake fines exist: a real fine comes by registered post, gives 5 days for the 30% discount and is paid through pagoPA or to the city. Links in text messages and private bank accounts are signs of a scam.
• Contesting: an appeal to the Prefetto is free, written in Italian and sent by registered post within 60 days. It works for clear mistakes, such as a fine sent too late.
• Cleaning and smoking: special cleaning or sanitising costs about 65 to 150 EUR at the companies we checked. Normal dust is not charged.
• Late return: most companies give 29 or 59 minutes. After that you pay a full extra day, sometimes with a penalty on top.
• Damage: the company must show you the damage and the repair cost. With the rental company’s own full insurance, covered damage is not charged. With third-party full coverage, you pay the company and claim the money back.

With a rental car, Italy traffic fines go to the rental company first, because the car is registered to it. The fine reaches you in steps:

1. A camera records the car and the police find the owner of the number plate. They have 90 days to notify the owner, the rental company.
2. The rental company gives the police your details from the rental agreement. It has 60 days to do this, and it usually tells you by email at this point.
3. The police send the fine to you. If you live outside Italy, they have 360 days from the day they receive your details (article 201 of the Highway Code).

Add international post, and a fine can arrive 6 to 18 months after the trip. Italy traffic fines can be collected for 5 years. Our customers see the same pattern: a small charge from the rental company weeks after the rental, and the fine itself much later. One customer was charged 21 GBP by the rental company with no email at all, another got a 25 EUR charge with an email saying the fine would follow by post.

Unless a sign says otherwise, the speed limits in Italy are 130 km/h on motorways (110 km/h in rain), 110 km/h on main roads outside towns (90 km/h in rain), 90 km/h on other roads outside towns and 50 km/h in towns. The fines under article 142 of the Highway Code are:

Speed is checked by fixed cameras (autovelox), mobile cameras and, on motorways, by Tutor, which measures your average speed between two gates. Speed checks must be announced by signs. The camera reading is reduced by 5%, with a minimum of 5 km/h, before the fine is calculated.

• Pay within 5 days of receiving the fine: 30% off the minimum. For 10 to 40 km/h over the limit that is 121.10 EUR instead of 173 EUR.
• Pay within 60 days: the minimum, 173 EUR in the same example.
• Pay later: half of the maximum, 347 EUR in the same example, plus collection costs.

The cost of sending the notice is added to every fine. A driving ban for a foreign licence applies to driving in Italy.

Driving into a ZTL (limited traffic zone) in a historic centre without a permit costs 83 to 332 EUR. Since 14 December 2024, repeated entries into the same zone on the same day bring one fine, but each zone and each day count separately. The gate is marked by a round sign with the hours and an electronic panel that tells you whether the cameras are on:

Our ZTL guide has a map that checks your route, and the camera hours in 14 cities. Landing in Pisa? Our Pisa Airport guide shows how to avoid the zones of Pisa, Florence and Lucca, and our guide to car rental in Sicily covers ZTL fines and tolls on the island.

Most Italian motorways (autostrade) charge a toll by distance. You can pay at the motorway itself, in cash or by card, as long as you use the right lanes. The colour of the sign above each lane tells you how it works:

1. When you drive onto the motorway, choose a white or blue lane. Never use a lane with a yellow TELEPASS sign: it is only for cars with an electronic toll device, and a rental car usually has none.
2. Take the ticket from the machine and keep driving.
3. When you reach the end of the toll section, drive into a white lane to pay in cash or a blue Carte lane to pay by card.
4. Put the ticket into the machine and pay in cash or by card.

Some shorter sections have no ticket and you simply pay at a booth on the way. If something goes wrong at the exit, for example you lost the ticket or the card does not work, press the help button. The booth prints a notice of unpaid toll (rapporto di mancato pagamento), which you pay later.

Pay it online yourself, without registering, on the Autostrade per l’Italia website or in its app. You need the number plate and the date of the trip, and you can pay from 24 hours after the trip. Paid within 15 days, it costs only the toll. After 15 days, collection costs are added. The motorway company then writes to the owner of the car, the rental company, which passes the claim to you and may charge a handling fee. Unpaid tolls are often passed to collection agencies, sometimes years later.

Most of the network is run by Autostrade per l’Italia. On motorways run by other companies, the payment details are on the notice or on that company’s website.

In Italian towns, blue lines mean paid parking. If you park without a ticket or stay too long, you can find a parking notice under the wiper, usually 42 to 173 EUR. Pay it before you return the car: at a post office, at a tabaccheria (tobacco shop) or online with the pagoPA code printed on the notice. If you leave it unpaid, the police send the fine to the rental company, and you pay the fine, the notice costs and possibly the company’s handling fee.

Autorentwiz tip: never ask the rental company to pay a fine for you. You risk receiving the fine later with the company’s administration charge on top, and a forgotten fine grows. If you are struggling to pay it, go to a local café or tabaccheria and ask someone there to help you.

Often, yes, but in Italy it is now more limited. When we ran our own car rental company, we charged a 25 EUR fee for every fine. Handling a fine takes time: the police send the notice to the company, someone has to reply with the driver’s details, and then inform the driver about the fine and the fee. The fee simply covers that work.

In April 2024 Italy’s competition authority (AGCM) ruled that charging private renters this fee is an unfair contract term. It fined Avis Budget, Hertz, Centauro, Noleggiare, Drivalia and Green Motion more than 18 million EUR in total. In June 2024 the court of Bolzano ruled the same against Sicily by Car and Goldcar (European Consumer Centre Italy), and in 2025 the authority fined Sicily by Car 8 million EUR and Locauto 400,000 EUR for still charging it to some consumers.

If you rented as a private person and were charged a handling fee, write to the rental company, using the email address in your rental agreement. Say that you rented as a consumer, mention the competition authority’s decisions of April 2024 on this fee, and ask for a refund. If the company refuses or does not answer, you can dispute the charge with your bank.

1. Check the date, time, place and number plate against your rental agreement.
2. Pay with the pagoPA code or the online card payment shown on the notice. A bank transfer from abroad needs the IBAN and BIC, takes a few days and can arrive after the 5-day discount ends.
3. The 5 days count from the day after the notice is delivered to you. If you pay later, pay the full amount shown for 60 days.
4. Keep the payment receipt until you are sure the case is closed.
5. Pay the authority that issued the fine, not the rental company. The rental company only charges its own handling fee.

Fake fines do exist in Italy. In September 2025 Florence warned about fake parking fines left on the windscreens of parked cars: they looked official, but the QR code opened a copy of the payment page and the discount lasted 15 days instead of 5. Other scams come by text message or email with a payment link. This is how the real thing differs:

This is what a real one looks like. The fine above names the police force and its address, the article of the Highway Code (142/8), the date, time and exact place, and the speed: 92 km/h where the limit was 70 km/h. It gives the two amounts, 137.90 EUR within 5 days and 189.80 EUR within 60 days, postage and costs included. The offence happened on 1 May 2019 and the notice was issued on 13 December 2019, more than 7 months later. It also asked us to name the driver within 60 days: a rental company that does not do this gets a second fine of 292 to 1,168 EUR. That is why every rental company passes your details to the police.

To check a fine, compare the date, time and number plate with your rental agreement. Ask the rental company whether it passed your details to the police for that date. Then find the police contact on the city’s official website, not in the letter, and ask them to confirm the notice number. If you pay through pagoPA, the payee shown must be the city or the police force.

Letters from collection agencies such as Nivi, which collect unpaid fines and tolls for Italian cities and motorway companies, are usually genuine. If an agency asks you to pay a fine you never received, ask for a copy of the original notice and the proof that it was delivered to you. A fine that was never delivered within the time limit can be contested. And if you get a fine for a car or a date you did not rent, write to the rental company and to the authority that sent it, with your rental agreement, and ask them to cancel it.

From our experience: never ignore a real fine. When we ran ADCRent, a customer collected several fines in Italy and left them unpaid. Five years later we were still receiving emails about a fine that had grown much larger, and then letters from Lithuanian debt collectors threatening legal action. If a fine is wrong, contest it. If it is right, pay it early and save 30%.

You can contest a fine only if you have not paid it: paying, even the discounted amount, ends your right to appeal. You do not need a lawyer, but the appeal must be written in Italian. For a small fine with no clear mistake, paying early with the 30% discount is usually cheaper than appealing and losing.

• The fine arrived too late. If you live abroad, the police have 360 days from the day they received your details from the rental company. The date of the rental company’s email or charge shows roughly when that was.
• It was not you. The date or time is outside your rental, the number plate is not your car’s, or you had already returned the car. Your rental agreement and the return receipt are the proof.
• ZTL mistakes. Your hotel registered your number plate for access, or you got a second fine for the same zone on the same day, which since 14 December 2024 counts as one offence.
• Speed camera problems. In 2024 Italy’s highest court (Cassazione) cancelled fines from speed cameras that were approved but never homologated. A 2026 decree is bringing many cameras into line, so this ground depends on the camera and the date. Check what the fine says about the device.
• Missing signs. Speed checks and ZTL gates must be announced by signs. Take a photo of the spot if you can.

If you live abroad and the mistake is clear on paper, the appeal to the Prefetto is the practical choice: it is free and you never have to travel.

Fill in the details from your fine and tick your reasons. The generator writes the appeal to the Prefetto in Italian, with the correct legal references, and tells you your deadline and what to attach. Copy it with one click and paste it into an email to yourself or a document, or download or print it.

1. Print the letter and sign it by hand.
2. Attach copies of the fine, your passport or ID card and your evidence: the rental agreement, the return receipt, the hotel confirmation or the envelope showing the delivery date.
3. Send it by international registered post with a return receipt to the police force at the address printed on the fine, or directly to the Prefettura of the province. If you have a certified email address (PEC), you can send it from there.
4. Keep the postal receipt and the return receipt. They prove you appealed in time.
5. Wait for the answer. If the Prefetto does not decide in time (180 days, or 210 days if you sent it directly to the Prefettura), the appeal counts as accepted.

This is general information, not legal advice. For a large fine or a driving ban, ask an Italian lawyer, who can also represent you at the Giudice di Pace.

Reputable companies do not charge for normal dust or a few crumbs. They charge when the car needs special cleaning: a lot of sand, mud inside, pet hair, stains or a bad smell. Smoking is forbidden in every rental car we checked, and a smell of smoke is charged as sanitising.

Before you return the car, shake out the mats, take out the sand and rubbish, and take photos of the clean interior and exterior at the return point. If the company later claims the car was dirty, the photos are your proof.

A rental day is 24 hours from your pick-up time. If you return the car later than the pick-up time, most companies charge a full extra day. That is why we always ask our customers to set the same pick-up and return time: returning at 11:00 after a pick-up at 10:00 adds a whole day. Returning earlier than booked is fine, and outside opening hours you usually leave the keys in a key box.

• Fuel: with a full-to-full policy, missing fuel is charged at more than the pump price. Locauto and Noleggiare add a 35 EUR refuelling fee, and our customers have seen totals of 2 to 3 times the price of the missing fuel. Fill up close to the airport and keep the receipt.
• Lost keys: 400 EUR at Locauto and 500 EUR at Noleggiare. Lost documents: 150 EUR at Locauto and 50 EUR at Noleggiare.
• Wrong fuel: putting diesel in a petrol car or the other way round is expensive to fix. Full coverage bought with your booking also refunds this.

After the return, the company inspects the car. If it finds new damage, it sends you photos and a repair estimate or invoice and charges you up to the excess written in your rental agreement. It can charge only the real cost of the repair, not a fixed amount. In 2017 the five largest rental companies committed to the European Commission to show the evidence before taking payment and to give customers the chance to challenge it.

It depends on where you bought your cover:

• Full insurance bought from the rental company (at the desk or included in your rental): damage that the cover includes should not be charged at all. If you are charged anyway, reply to the company, quote the cover written in your rental agreement and ask for the charge to be cancelled. Check the exclusions, because some companies leave out tyres, glass, the underside of the car or the keys.
• Third-party full coverage (bought with your booking or as a separate excess insurance policy): the rental company treats you as uninsured and charges the damage to your deposit or card, up to the excess. You pay the invoice, then claim the money back from the insurer with your rental agreement, the damage report, the invoice and the proof of payment. In our experience the refund for full coverage bought with your booking arrives within 48 hours.

Neither kind of cover pays Italy traffic fines or the handling fees for them. Our guide to car rental in Italy explains how the deposit and the cover work together.

• At pick-up, film the car slowly on all sides, including the wheels, the windscreen and the roof, and check that every scratch is marked on the contract.
• If you find damage or dirt that is not on the contract, take photos and email them to the rental company before you drive off. The email address is in your rental agreement.
• At the return, take photos again, including the fuel gauge and the mileage, and ask for the car to be checked with you if the desk is open.
• Keep the rental agreement, the return receipt and your photos for at least a few months.

More advice for the desk is in our 5 tips for a smooth car rental pick-up.

1. Look for an email or letter from the rental company, including in your spam folder. A small amount of 20 to 50 EUR weeks after the rental is usually a handling fee for a traffic fine.
2. Ask the rental company for the reason and the evidence. Use the email address in your rental agreement (the contract you signed at the desk), not the one on the booking voucher.
3. If it is a damage charge and you bought full insurance from the rental company, ask the company to cancel it. If you have third-party full coverage, pay the charge and claim it back from that insurer.
4. If it is a handling fee for a fine and you rented as a private person, ask for it back.
5. If the company does not explain the charge, dispute it with your bank (a chargeback).

When you book your rental car with Autorentwiz, we do not leave you alone after the booking. If a fine, a charge on your card or a damage claim comes after the trip, message us on Messenger: we check whether the fine is real, explain what it is and what you need to do, help you decide whether an appeal is worth it, and show you how to send a full coverage claim. Read more about why travellers book their rental car with us.

1. Keep to the speed limit, especially where signs announce a speed check or a Tutor section.
2. Check your route before you drive into a city centre and never pass a ZTL gate when the panel says ZTL ATTIVA or VARCO ATTIVO.
3. On motorways use the white lanes for cash or the blue Carte lanes for cards, never a yellow Telepass lane.
4. Pay for parking at the machine and pay any parking notice yourself before you return the car.
5. Set the same pick-up and return time and return the car on time.
6. Return the car clean inside, with the agreed fuel level, and never smoke in it.
7. Film the car at pick-up and at return.
8. Have full cover, either the rental company’s own insurance or full coverage with your booking, so a damage charge does not come out of your pocket.

The rental itself can cost less too: our tips to save money on car rental explain how.

Cover photo by viktor rejent on Unsplash: the motorway toll at Rovereto Sud on the A22.

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