Judiciary ever stricter

Why license plates are suddenly banned

It is becoming increasingly difficult to get and keep a license plate of your choice(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Andi Schiel/ Evelyn Hronek)

A man from Carinthia wanted to number company vehicles with license plates of his choice - and was turned down by the court with the "14". Recently, the plates have been checked for possible hidden messages. According to the latest decision, other license plate owners are also threatened with trouble for supposedly harmless plates.

The introduction of the optional license plates in 1990 was probably also a source of amusement on Austria's roads: From "NARR1" to "LUMPI9" and "STUR1" to "KLEIN6", all sorts of things could be read on cars over the years and no one seemed to worry - and a few years ago there were apparently no problems with plates such as SS1 due to possible hidden and questionable messages. This has now changed, as an exciting administrative procedure from Carinthia shows.