60,000 Vehicles Use Polish Plates to Cut Insurance Costs, Open Reports
Approximately 60,000 vehicles circulate in Italy with Polish license plates to exploit a legal loophole known as esterovestizione, allowing motorists to slash insurance costs by up to 70%, Open reported.
How the Esterovestizione Loophole Operates
The mechanism relies on a paper trail rather than physical relocation. An Italian vehicle owner transfers ownership of the automobile to a company based in Poland. The car is subsequently canceled from the Italian Public Automobile Register and registered abroad. It then returns to the original owner via a leasing or rental contract. While the legal structure remains sound on paper, investigations reveal that many of these vehicles never cross the Italian border. A Guardia di Finanza probe in Naples intercepted a postal package containing 21 Polish license plates, 14 registration documents, and six sales contracts. Polish authorities arrested seven individuals in March as part of an investigation into 1,500 vehicles registered using fraudulent vehicle inspections and corrupt local officials.
Uninsured Polish Vehicle Claims Double in Italy
The financial impact of these unregistered operations manifests clearly in insurance data. According to the Polskie Biuro Ubezpieczycieli Komunikacyjnych, the Polish motor insurers’ bureau, more than 80 percent of the 60,000 Polish-plated vehicles in Italy concentrate in the Naples metropolitan area. Data through August 2026 shows uninsured claims related to Polish-registered vehicles already hitting 35 million zloty—nearly 8 million euros. That figure doubles the 16 million zloty recorded during the entirety of 2025, straining cross-border insurance settlements and driving up liability reserves.
Regulatory Crackdown and Border Enforcement
Italian and Polish ministries are moving to close the enforcement gap. The Italian Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Transportation are pushing for mandatory registration in the Foreign Vehicle Register for any foreign-registered vehicle used stably inside Italy. Under provisions in the new Highway Code, once a vehicle joins this registry, its mandatory third-party liability insurance must come from a company authorized to operate in Italy. A Ministry of the Interior circular issued on August 13 granted law enforcement direct, real-time access to Polish government portals to verify vehicle registration documents, insurance coverage, and driver's licenses. Meanwhile, Polish insurers are pressing for mandatory photographic evidence during initial vehicle inspections to verify that registered automobiles actually reside within Polish borders.
