Dusseldorf must not ban Autoposen - city loses in court

Created: 09/01/2022, 21:09

By: Benjamin Stroka

The Königsallee in Dusseldorf is known for car posers who display their expensive cars on the luxury promenade.

© Ralph Peters/Imago

The city of Dusseldorf may not ban car poses and may not impose fines for it.

The administrative court agreed with a 22-year-old driver.

Dusseldorf – They let the tires squeal, the engines roar and are usually on the road in vehicles with particularly high horsepower – so-called autoposers.

The city of Düsseldorf has long since declared war on these autoposers.

There were closures and the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia also took action against the autoposers with large-scale police checks.

The city even imposed high penalties for repeat offenders.

But that is not legal, the Düsseldorf Administrative Court has now decided.

Dusseldorf: City must not ban Autoposen - court agrees with plaintiffs

“The state capital of Düsseldorf must not ban 'car posers' from showing off in the city area.

Fines to enforce the ban in the amount of 5000 euros and more are excluded," said the administrative court on Thursday.

The court thus upheld the lawsuit of 22-year-old Onur Moumin, reports 24RHEIN.

Plaintiff Onur Moumin (left) shows his car on the display of his smartphone in the Düsseldorf administrative court.

© Martin Höke/dpa

The man is said to have started in March 2021 with a 500 hp Mercedes-AMG C63 at a traffic light on Heinrich-Heine-Allee with the engine roaring loudly.

He wanted to draw the attention of passers-by, according to the accusation from the city.

They then banned the 22-year-old from car posing throughout the city for three years.

If he was caught posing again in the car, the city of Düsseldorf threatened him with a fine of 5,000 euros

Lawsuit against autoposer ban – city of Düsseldorf loses in court

Moumin, on the other hand, had filed a lawsuit and was now right before the administrative court.

The 6th chamber of the court lifted the ban.

The court emphasized that the city could not issue its own traffic rules for its area.

The city lacks the legal basis for such measures because road traffic in Germany is regulated by federal law.

"Accordingly, the 'autopose' [...] can currently only be punished with a fine of 80 to 100 euros," the court explained.

"I never received a fine for the incident," said the plaintiff, causing astonishment and inquiries from the judges' bench.

"Fines make no impression on the scene," said the city representative.

"They didn't try to find out whether that was the case with the plaintiff," the judge remarked.

Court: According to the law, Autoposer is not a “particularly serious risk to road safety”

In addition, the court stated that there were no points in Flensburg for auto posing.

In federal law, the posturing is not considered to be a "particularly serious risk to road safety".

The local regulatory authority, in this case the city of Düsseldorf, can therefore not apply stricter standards and therefore cannot independently issue bans and fines.

The city can appeal against the verdict - either before the NRW Higher Administrative Court in Münster or directly before the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig.

The city announced that it would examine the written reasons for the verdict very carefully.

Their approach had been successful and had noticeably reduced the number of autoposers in Düsseldorf within a short period of time.

Therefore, one wants to exhaust one's own possibilities in the interest of the citizens and security in the city.