Dash Cams in Europe

[bad company]

I posted this in holidays with no response but as its a legal question:-

Mrs BC and I are off to Germany in a few days so from Calais we will drive through France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Our car has BMW adaptive headlights so I guess no need for 'beam benders'.? I know I need to take the radar detector off the dashboard BUT:-

Does anybody know the situation with Dash Cams in the countries?

[krallicious]

Turn your adaptive lights off and just use the 'normal' on setting if that makes sense.

[bad company]

krallicious said:

Turn your adaptive lights off and just use the 'normal' on setting if that makes sense.

Will the lights not dip to the left?

Anybody anything about whether the 'DashCam' is legal? Lots of conflicting info on the interweb.

[krallicious]

When my UK BMW went in for a service in Germany, the head of service told me that was the correct setting for driving in Europe. Dash cams are legal in Germany.

[B3NNL]

Dashcams are Illegle in Luxembourg, as for the rest, nothing I'm aware of.

[WatchfulEye]

If you have projector headlights with a tight cutoff, then beam deflectors are not usually required, even if the left side of the beam is elevated (because the beam pattern is so well controlled).

Any beam steering/adaptive system needs to be turned off as they are tuned differently for RHD and LHD.

Note that while these lights may be adequate for temporary use, they are not considered adequate to register the vehicle abroad, and the light units will need to be replaced.

[bad company]

WatchfulEye said:

If you have projector headlights with a tight cutoff, then beam deflectors are not usually required, even if the left side of the beam is elevated (because the beam pattern is so well controlled).

Any beam steering/adaptive system needs to be turned off as they are tuned differently for RHD and LHD.

Note that while these lights may be adequate for temporary use, they are not considered adequate to register the vehicle abroad, and the light units will need to be replaced.

Thanks for that.

I'm only going for a 10 day 'wine run'. The car is a year old BMW 3 Series (think its F30) so the systems should be up to date.

[Hugo a Gogo]

bad company said:

Will the lights not dip to the left?

Anybody anything about whether the 'DashCam' is legal? Lots of conflicting info on the interweb.

In Germany:

recording people, or number plates, without their knowledge is strictly speaking not allowed

publishing the videos on the internet is not allowed

using the videos as evidence is not allowed

there's a lot of talk about data protection, the Germans are quite obsessive about it

Belgium doesn't allow them either

[bad company]

Hugo a Gogo said:

In Germany:

recording people, or number plates, without their knowledge is strictly speaking not allowed

publishing the videos on the internet is not allowed

using the videos as evidence is not allowed

there's a lot of talk about data protection, the Germans are quite obsessive about it

Belgium doesn't allow them either

Sounds like its best to disconnect the dashcam. Illegal in some countries and if the video evidence can't be used more or less useless in Germany.

Thanks for the info.

[AA999]

bad company said:

Sounds like its best to disconnect the dashcam. Illegal in some countries and if the video evidence can't be used more or less useless in Germany.

Thanks for the info.

But if you did require video evidence to prove non-fault or to back up your side of events, wouldn't your UK insurance company be interested?

[Finlandia]

Just to add, even if you didn't ask, here in Sweden dash cams are illegal if they are mounted to the car, holding it in your hand is legal though, seriously, I kid you not.

[herewego]

What's the reason for them being illegal?

[agtlaw]

A usually reliable source:

http://driveeuropenews.com/2014/09/24/zeelandbrug/

[Finlandia]

herewego said:

What's the reason for them being illegal?

Same reason as CCTV is largely illegal, any filming of the public is illegal apart from in a very few and very specified circumstances.

[bad company]

agtlaw said:

A usually reliable source:

http://driveeuropenews.com/2014/09/24/zeelandbrug/

That looks very informative, thank you.

[Dogwatch]

They seem to be essential in Russia!

[Cabrony]

Does anyone know if dash cams are legal/illegal in France and Italy?

[anonymous-user]

I'm quite surprised it's illegal in some countries. Seems a little too restrictive by the state.

[anonymous-user]

So let me get this straight... In numerous counties in Europe, if I was on holiday and stood in the street casually filming the traffic and goings on around me with my camera, that would actually be illegal??

[Hugo a Gogo]

sort of yes and no

here's a bit of a guide http://guidedmunich.com/german-privacy-laws/