Germany set to make rental e-scooter operators liable for accidents

Measures aim to make it easier for victims to gain compensation, with firms such as Bolt and Lime held responsible for damage

Victims hit by rental e-scooters on German streets will have an easier time gaining compensation from their operators under legislation due to be passed in parliament that would put the vehicles on a legal footing similar to that of cars.

The draft law by the right-left coalition government, which has been welcomed by consumer rights advocates, says that given the rapid rise in the use of e-scooters in recent years coupled with high accident rates, rental operators such as Lime and Bolt should be held liable.

“Those who earn money renting e-scooters should also take responsibility for the damage caused by these vehicles,” said the justice minister, Stefanie Hubig, one of the bill’s sponsors, before the vote which was scheduled for Thursday night.

Riders will also share liability for any “presumed fault” in a collision they are believed to have caused, in line with policies that already apply to other motorised vehicles, such as cars.

E-scooters have been permitted on German roads since 2019 and are restricted to riders aged 14 and over.

The new law, which does not address other motorised rentals such as e-bikes , also targets accidents caused by e-scooters improperly left on footpaths and pavements, a problem in German cities which operators and local authorities are under pressure to address.

The government cited figures showing e-scooter accidents in which the number of people hurt or killed had more than doubled since 2021 , from 5,535 to nearly 12,000 in 2024. The latter figure made up about 4% of all traffic accidents with casualties.

Twenty-seven people died in such accidents in 2024, all of them being the riders ofthe e-scooters. About 1,500 people were badly hurt, and about 11,400 sustained minor injuries.

Insurance sector data shows that rental e-scooter users tend to be younger, less experienced and more likely to ride on pavements than owners of the vehicles.

The government said the number of non-riders who were hit rose to about 5,000 in 2023 from 1,150 in 2020. Data on accidents caused by incorrectly parked e-scooters are not collected centrally.

Victims are currently required to show that the e-scooter rider was at fault to file a claim – a standard of proof difficult to provide because the riders are often hard to conclusively identify. In accidents caused by e-scooters improperly parked in public spaces such as pavements, it is even more difficult to find the person at fault.

Under the new law, the rental companies themselves can be held responsible and victims can gain compensation directly from the firms. “The rights of affected passersby are being strengthened vis-a-vis the operating companies – they [the victims] will no longer be left just to foot the bill,” Beate Saupe, from the Saxony state consumer advice centre, told public broadcaster MDR.

However, Anna Montasser, of the Shared Mobility lobbying group representing e-scooter operators, said the industry expected fraudulent claims to rise. “Damage caused to a person or property can simply be attributed to a provider, entirely regardless of fault,” she said, adding that the legislation could set off a flood of lawsuits that would “inundate German courts”.

It was relatively easy to identify a rider who caused a collision based on rental data showing who was using it at the time, Montasser said. But the individuals responsible for accidents caused by e-scooters left in hazardous spots were trickier to trace, she said, noting it was often third parties who overturned scooters, creating obstacles for pedestrians or damaging parked cars.

German voters welcomed the plans, with 67% saying they favoured the new liability rules for operators , according to a YouGov poll.

The government has already approved a tightening of safety rules for e-scooters from next year, requiring new models to have turn indicators and imposing higher fines for those who ride with two or more people on board.

In Great Britain, nearly 500 people were seriously injured in collisions involving e-scooters last year, government statistics have shown.