{"id":4703,"date":"2025-07-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uat.locautorent.com\/blog\/how-to-avoid-an-air-conditioning-fine\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T14:50:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T13:50:39","slug":"how-to-avoid-an-air-conditioning-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.locautorent.com\/en\/blog\/how-to-avoid-an-air-conditioning-fine\/","title":{"rendered":"How to avoid an air conditioning fine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Car air conditioning: fines under the highway code<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n

\nFirst, let\u2019s clarify some terms. The Italian Highway Code (Codice della Strada, or CdS) makes a distinction between:
\n\u2022 \u201cArresto\u201d (Stop):<\/strong> a temporary halt of the vehicle due to traffic conditions or road needs;
\n\u2022 \u201cFermata\u201d (Brief Stop):<\/strong> a short suspension of movement, even in areas where parking isn\u2019t allowed, to let passengers in or out or for other very short-term needs;
\n\u2022 \u201cSosta\u201d (Parking):<\/strong> a longer halt of the vehicle, during which the driver may leave the vehicle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

According to Article 157, paragraph 7-bis of the Highway Code<\/strong>, using air conditioning while the vehicle is parked (sosta)<\/strong> can result in a fine. More specifically, if the vehicle is left stationary for more than a few seconds with the AC running, you risk an administrative fine ranging from \u20ac223 to \u20ac444<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

This rule applies to situations of complete vehicle stop<\/strong> \nclassified as \u201csosta\u201d and does not<\/strong> apply to brief halts like \u201carresto\u201d and \u201cfermata\u201d for instance, stopping momentarily to let a passenger out or in heavy traffic. On the other hand, waiting for your child outside summer camp with the engine and air conditioning running counts as a misuse that could result in a fine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Car air conditioning fines: are there exceptions?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n

\nThere are no exceptions to this rule not even during extreme heatwaves<\/strong> \nlike the ones we\u2019re currently experiencing. The reasoning behind the regulation is environmental: its main goal is to reduce CO\u2082 emissions<\/strong> during idle periods.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n

Therefore, using air conditioning while parked is prohibited for all fuel-powered vehicles (whether diesel, petrol, LPG, or methane), but the rule does not apply to electric vehicles<\/strong>, as their environmental impact is negligible.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Car air conditioning: fines under the highway code First, let\u2019s clarify some terms. The Italian Highway Code (Codice della Strada, or CdS) makes a distinction between: \u2022 \u201cArresto\u201d (Stop): a temporary halt of the vehicle due to traffic conditions or road needs; \u2022 \u201cFermata\u201d (Brief Stop): a short suspension of movement, even in areas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"When is a fine for air conditioning due? | Locauto","_seopress_titles_desc":"As news of blackouts caused by overloaded power grids spreads across Italy and our social feeds fill up with photos of tourists in European cities devastated by the hellish heatwave, some are starting to question the legitimacy of excessive...","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-rules"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.locautorent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.locautorent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.locautorent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.locautorent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.locautorent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4703"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.locautorent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6801,"href":"https:\/\/www.locautorent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4703\/revisions\/6801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.locautorent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.locautorent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.locautorent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.locautorent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}