Average speed cameras and municipal administrative fines: can you challenge them?

In recent years, average speed cameras (contrôle de trajet) have appeared all over Flanders, including on municipal roads. Many municipalities have them installed and operated by a private company, under an arrangement known as TaaS: “trajectcontrole-as-a-service”. For a minor speeding offence on these roads, you do not receive a fine from the public prosecutor (parquet), but a municipal administrative fine (amende administrative communale, known as a SAC fine) from the municipality.

Since the end of 2025, this system has come under pressure. Police judges have cancelled SAC fines because the average speed camera was not entirely funded by the municipality, as the law requires. In this article, we explain how an average speed check works, when you receive a SAC fine, what these decisions mean and how to challenge a SAC fine. This article is part of our overview of traffic offences, their degrees and the procedure.

How does an average speed check work?

With an average speed check, two or more cameras record your number plate at different points. From the distance travelled and the time taken, the system calculates your average speed. If it exceeds the speed limit, after deducting the technical margin, an offence is recorded.

The advantage for the authorities is that drivers do not just slow down right before a speed camera. For you, it means that speeding is measured over a longer stretch rather than at a single point. For speeding fines in general, see our overview of speeding.

There is no statutory minimum length for the stretch. According to the Vilvoorde police court, what matters above all is that the stretch is certified. Whether several short consecutive stretches should be treated as a single stretch is decided by the judge on a case-by-case basis (Pol. Vilvoorde, 6 November 2025).

SAC fine or fine from the public prosecutor?

A speeding offence can be penalised in two ways.

	Public prosecutor	SAC fine (Flanders)
Who imposes the penalty?	The public prosecutor (procureur du Roi) or the police judge	The municipality’s sanctioning officer (fonctionnaire sanctionnateur)
Which offences?	All speeding offences	Only minor offences: 30 or 50 km/h limit, no more than 20 km/h over
Detection	Police, camera with or without an officer present	Automatic devices entirely funded by the municipality
Offender	Anyone	Only an adult natural person, with no other offence committed at the same time
Driving ban possible?	Yes, if summoned to court	No

The SAC fine for speeding has existed in Flanders since 1 February 2021. A municipality can only impose it if it has provided for it in its own police regulation and all the statutory conditions are met. If even one of those conditions is missing, the case falls to the public prosecutor.

The decisions on TaaS

Vilvoorde police court, 6 November 2025

On 6 November 2025, the Vilvoorde police court cancelled a SAC fine for speeding detected by an average speed camera in Meise. The judge relied on two grounds:

• the municipality could not show that the offence had been recorded by a competent person; a registration number was not enough to identify the competent officer;
• the devices were not entirely funded by the municipality, but also by a private company that received a share of the fine revenue, whereas the law requires entirely public funding.

Maaseik police court, April 2026

In April 2026, the Maaseik police court reached a similar decision concerning an average speed camera in Lanaken. The municipality paid the private company a fixed amount for each offence recorded, unrelated to the actual costs. According to the judge, that is not funding by the municipality. The municipality said it was considering an appeal to the Court of Cassation.

The Flemish government’s response

On 6 March 2026, the Flemish government sent a circular to local authorities. Among other things, it provides that:

• a private partner may not be paid solely on the basis of the number of fines or the fine revenue;
• repayment of the infrastructure may not come exclusively from fine revenue;
• average speed checks must be based on a road safety analysis, not on a profit model.

The Flemish government can annul decisions of municipal councils that do not comply with it.

Two average speed checks in a row: only one fine

If you pass through two consecutive average speed checks one after the other, you may receive two SAC fines. The Vilvoorde police court held that this is not allowed where both offences result from the same driving behaviour. In that case, the two recordings were one minute apart. The judge applied the rule that a single punishable act receives only one penalty, and ordered the municipality to refund the second fine, which had already been paid (Pol. Vilvoorde, 14 August 2024).

What does this mean for your fine?

These decisions are important, but they do not mean that every SAC fine after an average speed check is unlawful.

• Each municipality has its own agreement. Whether the funding is lawful depends on the specific contract between the municipality and the company, and on any changes made after the March 2026 circular.
• A judgment only binds the parties. Other police judges may decide differently, and a possible ruling by the Court of Cassation could settle the question.
• The defence must be raised. Raise the funding argument yourself, first with the municipality and then before the police court, and ask for the documents.

For a fine imposed by the public prosecutor, after detection by a police camera, these decisions do not apply directly. The ordinary rules on the police report (procès-verbal) and the measurement then apply. See our article on errors in the police report.

How do you challenge a SAC fine?

1. Do not pay if you want to challenge the fine. Payment closes the file.
2. Submit a written defence to the sanctioning officer, within 30 days of being notified of the fine. An e-mail may be enough. In it, expressly ask for the contract with the private company, how the cameras are funded and the identity of the person who recorded the offence.
3. Wait for the decision. The officer must inform you that your defence has been rejected within 90 days of receiving it. If they do not do so within that period, your defence is deemed to have been accepted (Article 29quater, §4, of the Road Traffic Act, loi relative à la police de la circulation routière).
4. Appeal to the police court within one month of being notified of the decision. The police court’s judgment cannot be appealed.

If you were not driving yourself, you can also raise that. See our article on identifying the driver.

Frequently asked questions

Have your case reviewed

Have you received a SAC fine after an average speed check and are you considering an appeal? We check whether your municipality meets the statutory conditions and prepare your defence. Contact us.

Law as at 30 September 2026. We update this article when the rules change.