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For the first time, there has been a verdict in connection with what is probably the most controversial parking lot in Switzerland.
You can drive into the park-and-ride car park in the shopping area of Lyssach (BE) without hindrance – there is no barrier, but sensors in every parking space and a prohibition sign: a court ban on parking with the threat of high fines. Anyone who overlooks this and does not pay the parking fee at the machine quickly will receive an invoice from the operator.
If the claim is not paid, there are sometimes harshly worded reminders with exorbitant reminder fees and threats of enforcement up to the point of a penalty order from the public prosecutor’s office. The operator of that parking facility repeatedly offends car drivers. Critics speak of a real “bus trap”.
After various critical reports in the SRF consumer magazines “Espresso” and “Kassenrutsch” and other media, the parking boss promised changes:
The 300 franc fine turns out to be a mistake
But the complaints don’t stop. A listener calls “Espresso” and is initially asked to pay 52 francs and then over 300 francs in additional charges, even though she has never parked at the Park and Ride in Lyssach. The “evidence photo” on the corresponding letter doesn’t show her car, and the number doesn’t match either, she says.
However, it goes nowhere with two registered letters from the person responsible for the parking lot. No response for months. Only when “Espresso” contacted him did he admit that an employee had made a typo. We regret that. When asked why he didn’t respond to the letters, he simply replied: “Holiday absence.”
“Abusive business model”
In principle, the operator believes he is in the right. Everything is legal. And so far no one has officially denied this. However, “Espresso” learns that there is a court ruling that seriously questions the business model of that parking lot operator and even criticizes it as “abuse of the law”.
The hearing at the Emmental-Oberaargau regional court took place on January 24, 2024. The court confirms this. However, there is no subsequent comment on the oral verdict, it is said upon request.
Comprehensive acquittal of an illegal parker
The accused’s lawyer provides information about this. He reports on a comprehensive acquittal of his client. A man who wanted to pay the fees in that parking lot in the evening, but couldn’t because the parking meter wasn’t working. No one was present on site to deal with the problem. That’s why the driver challenged the Emmental-Oberaargau public prosecutor’s penalty order for violating the parking ban.
According to the lawyer, the court was not only able to understand the situation of the fined motorist, but above all it also criticized the system in principle and in several respects. The most important criticism: A judicial parking ban is there to prevent disruption to the property and to keep third-party parkers out of a private parking lot.
The parking lot operator, on the other hand, wants people to come to their P&R parking lot. He wants to make money with it. That’s why the prohibition board is out of place there. The fines based on this have no legal basis.