But how does it work in practice?

To calculate the amount of the fine, the Finnish authorities take into account several criteria, starting with the offender’s net daily salary and the number of dependent children.

Depending on the offense, a scale determines the number of days of fines to be paid.

Sometimes this leads to comical results, as when in 2015 a millionaire had to pay a fine of more than 54,000 euros for a speeding offense of exceeding the limit by just over 20 km/h.

The absolute record is held by a motorcyclist, who had to pay 116,000 euros in 2002 for exceeding the speed limit by 25 km/h in a city.

Finland has inspired other Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Norway, in addition to Switzerland and, more recently, Great Britain.

In all these countries, fines for speeding are now indexed in some way to income, with scales that are specific to each country. In contrast, the US uses a flat-fine model.