More and more supermarkets have their own car park so that customers can park their cars while they shop. The chains’ strategy is framed within a ‘win-win’ that favors both parties. The user knows in advance that they will find a place to park their vehicle while the supermarket benefits from a higher volume of sales, since those who go to buy food by car usually take the opportunity to fill the trunk.
After going through the checkout, customers return to the car park and deposit the products purchased in the trunk of the car. Once the unloading operation has been completed, the trolley must be returned to its place before leaving the premises. However, not all users do. Some leave the cart lying anywhere, especially when it comes to baskets that do not require a coin to be previously inserted to unlock them.
Apart from demonstrating his incivility, the driver of the vehicle who abandons the shopping cart in the parking lot in any way can be penalized by a traffic agent. Although the parking lot of a supermarket or shopping center is a private space, it is governed by the rules of the General Circulation Regulations (RGC).
Therefore, any driver who commits an infraction in these places could be penalized in the same way as on public roads, they explain from Dvuelta. There are court rulings that endorse it.
Article 4.2 of the General Traffic Regulations establishes the following: “It is prohibited to throw, deposit or abandon on the road objects or materials that may hinder the free movement, stop or parking, make them dangerous or deteriorate it or its facilities, or produce in it or in its vicinity effects that modify the appropriate conditions to circulate, stop or park.
Thus, abandoning the shopping cart in a place that prevents the movement or parking of vehicles is punishable. It is considered a minor offense and carries a fine of up to 80 euros.
Finding a free space to park the car in the parking lot of a shopping center or a supermarket can be difficult on some very special days. Weekends and the eve of a long weekend, as well as the beginning of the holiday periods, are usually the days with the greatest influx of consumers, so sometimes there are users who end up parking their cars in reserved places.
As in the case of the shopping cart, if an agent sees a car parked in a space for the disabled or in an electric car space without being disabled, they can impose a fine. The same thing happens when the car is parked in a charging space without starting the charge, points out a member of Dvuelta’s legal department.
Article 2 of the Road Safety Law establishes the scope of application. “The precepts of this law are applicable throughout the national territory and oblige the owners and users of roads and public lands suitable for circulation, both urban and interurban, to those of roads and lands that, without having such aptitude, are for common use and, in the absence of other regulations, to the owners of private roads and land that are used by an indeterminate group of users”.
Parking in a space for a person with reduced mobility is a serious offense and is punishable by a 200-euro fine. The same happens for parking in a space for an electric car without being one or in a recharging space without starting the charge. In both cases the financial penalty also amounts to 200 euros.
Drivers who park their cars in a community car park are safe from receiving a fine for committing an offense in that space, since the regulations establish that it is not considered for public use but for private use. However, if a person parks his car in a space that does not correspond to him, he could be denounced by the owner of the space, since occupying a parking space of others is recognized as a crime in the Penal Code. Normally, before reaching this point, the owner of the car is usually contacted to remove the vehicle.
