Private or public parking: what is the difference?
Control sanction or parking fee? The difference between contract parking and enforcement of the traffic rules — and why it decides where you appeal.
«Private» and «public» parking are constantly confused, but the important distinction is not really about who owns the ground — it is about which set of rules is being enforced. There are two parallel systems, each with its own fine and its own appeal route.
System 1: Contract parking (the Parking Regulations)
Contract parking is parking offered to the public on set terms: against payment, with a time limit, on positioning conditions, with a requirement for a parking permit for people with reduced mobility, or on other terms. This covers both private parking companies and municipal regulated parking spaces — since 1 January 2017, both follow the same set of rules, the Parking Regulations. Such spaces are signed with a «P» on a blue background (sign 552 / 1P).
If you break the terms here, you get a control sanction (330, 660 or 990 kr, depending on the breach — see the rates). If you want to appeal, you appeal first to the parking operator within three weeks, and then — if you are not upheld — to the Parking Complaints Board (§ 44 and § 45).
System 2: Enforcement of the traffic rules on a public road (the Fee Regulations)
On a public road, the police and the municipality enforce the traffic rules themselves: the ban on parking in front of a driveway, on the pavement, in a junction, and the other rules in the Traffic Rules § 17 and the Sign Regulations. This is not contract parking.
If you break these rules, you get a parking fee of 900 kr (see the rates). Here you appeal to the municipality or the police within three weeks, and further to the district court if you are not upheld (Fee Regulations §§ 7–8).
How to tell which system you are in
Look at the signs. If there is a «P» sign on a blue background with terms (price, time, vehicle group), you are on contract parking — a breach gives a control sanction. If, on the other hand, it is a general traffic-rule breach on a public road — you are in front of a driveway, on the pavement or too close to a junction — you are in the fee system. A plain «No stopping» (370) or «No parking» (372) is not contract parking in itself either.
Three things that protect you
An unregistered space cannot be enforced. Before an operator can offer contract parking with the official signs, the sign plan and additional information for the area must be registered in the central parking register. If the space is not registered, a control sanction cannot be enforced (Parking Regulations § 16). This is worth checking if you think a private space is poorly signed.
The same duty of care — on private spaces too. You have a duty to actively check the signs and terms before you leave the car, and this duty applies just as strictly on private areas as on public ones (the Parking Complaints Board's practice, cf. Traffic Rules § 3 and § 5). That the bay was unclear or that others parked wrongly does not exempt you.
Inspectors cannot be paid per fine. Employees who check contract parking must not have pay, bonus or other benefits that depend on the number of sanctions issued (Parking Regulations §§ 8–13). Quota-hunting is therefore not allowed.
What the regulation does not cover
The Parking Regulations do not apply to a purely private-law lease where a landowner rents out parking — a landowner's right to rent out land on a private-law basis is not limited by the regulation. Nor does it apply to temporary offers where payment is made to a physical person and no sanctions are issued, or areas with purely advisory signs and markings that are not enforced.