Motorway Vignette Fines in Hungary

Motorway Vignette Fines and Exemptions

• In 2023, approximately one million surcharges were imposed on cars without a vignette on Hungarian motorways, and another 1.5 million cases were passed on to foreign collection partners.
• 30,917 drivers avoided fines by opting to buy a full-year motorway vignette instead of paying the surcharge.

Surcharge Exemptions and Options

• The aim of this option is to encourage compliance with regulations rather than punish individuals.
• Surcharge maximisation or surcharge amnesty are available as discount options regarding fines.
• These exemptions are not automatically granted but must be requested by the customer.
• A surcharge waiver is available if a person has mistyped the licence plate number of their car, provided a maximum of three characters need to be corrected.
• Corrections can be made up to 60 days after the penalty notice has been served, and the administration fee for the process is HUF 1,470 (EUR 3.71).
• If someone has confused the characters “0” (zero) and “O” or the characters “1” (one) and “I” on the licence plate and the motorway vignette, they do not need to pay an administration fee when correcting their sticker.

Motorway Vignette Sales

• From the beginning of 2024 to 15 June, a total of 7,335,334 e-stickers were sold for Hungarian motorways.
• Most of these were weekly (10-day) vignettes, totalling exactly 3,283,827 purchases.
• 2,505,299 county vignettes were also sold.
• The distribution of the remaining e-vignettes was as follows:
  • Annual: 654,980
  • Monthly: 620,360
  • One-day: 270,868

Sales Trends and Proportions

• The relative disinterest in the one-day vignettes might be due to it being the most expensive in the region, surpassing the price of its Austrian counterpart, for example.
• Sales proportions over the past six months are likely to change throughout the year as road user habits and motorway vignette purchasing trends vary from season to season.
• Annual national and county stickers are bought by road users as part of a pre-purchase or in the first month or two of the year.
• The popularity of weekly and monthly stickers really spikes in the summer months, in July and August.

Learn how tens of thousands of people avoided motorway vignette fines in Hungary last year. Take this quiz to understand the rules and regulations.