{"id":429508,"date":"2026-04-10T16:31:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T16:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/429508\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T16:31:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T16:31:27","slug":"irish-tourists-in-canary-islands-urged-to-avoid-common-mistake-or-risk-e750-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/429508\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish tourists in Canary Islands urged to avoid common mistake or risk \u20ac750 fine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City Council in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, has introduced strict new fines of \u20ac750 (\u00a3650) for making common mistakes, which tourists could easily fall foul of<\/p>\n

Michael Moran<\/strong> and Maria Ortega<\/strong> Foreign Content Specialist<\/p>\n

17:04, 09 Apr 2026Updated 17:06, 09 Apr 2026<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

View of the beach and town of Anfi del Mar on the island of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. Europe.(Image: Jose A. Bernat Bacete via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Now that Spring is well and truly under way, many of us are starting to turn our thoughts towards our Summer holidays.<\/a><\/p>\n

However, while most people view a holiday as a chance to leave behind the mundane rules of everyday life, in many popular destinations, seemingly minor infringements can result in jaw-dropping penalties.<\/p>\n

For instance, in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain, the City Council has approved new regulations targeting littering that could, in the most extreme cases, result in fines totalling over \u00a33million.<\/p>\n

In an official statement, the council explains that the new ordinances have been introduced to control “conduct that affects the cleanliness of public spaces, with the ultimate goal of preserving the hygienic, aesthetic, and cleanliness of public spaces with the best overall environmental outcome, mitigating adverse impacts on human health and the environment.”<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Las Palmas(Image: Andrea Comi via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Minor violations, such as misusing or knocking over rubbish bins, or discarding cigarette butts or used chewing gum on public streets, would until recently have risked a fine of \u20ac120, or roughly \u00a3105.<\/p>\n

The penalty for these misdemeanours, along with comparable offences such as spitting or vomiting on a public street, have from Tuesday been significantly increased to a far more sobering \u20ac750 (approximately \u00a3650).<\/p>\n

Should you be renting a holiday property in Las Palmas and fail to adhere to the regulations surrounding bin collections, you could face a similarly hefty fine. For more severe violations, the fines can range from \u20ac1,500 up to \u20ac600,000 [\u00a3500,000].<\/p>\n

These are more likely to affect business-owners rather than individuals, and encompass litter left behind at public events or by outdoor bars, caf\u00e9s, kiosks, stalls, cinemas, fast-food outlets, pizzerias, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail chains, 24-hour shops, and similar establishments.<\/p>\n

\"Garbage<\/p>\n

Dropping rubbish could lead to a hefty fine(Image: kittimages via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

There’s an even higher, “very serious” category of offences, which encompasses infractions such as graffiti “or other acts of serious and significant damage to public spaces or any of their facilities and elements.”<\/p>\n

In these instances the penalties imposed can reach sums of up to \u20ac3.5 million \u2013 well over \u00a33,000,000. The steepest fines appear to be targeted primarily at fly-tippers and those responsible for spillages of toxic chemicals.<\/p>\n

Penalties will also be increased for repeat offenders, with minor offences expiring after one year; serious offences after three years; and the most serious offences after five years.<\/p>\n

\"Chewing<\/p>\n

Chewing gum stuck on the floor(Image: japatino via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The ordinance also provides for the possibility of “substituting all or some of the fines (…) with community service (such as cleaning public spaces), mandatory attendance at training courses, individual sessions, or any other alternative measure aimed at raising awareness among offenders about the rules of conduct in urban and natural spaces.”<\/p>\n

The legislation was partly driven by a petition sponsored by Jos\u00e9 Antonio N\u00f3brega, former head of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Fire and Rescue Service.<\/p>\n

He noted that the former, reduced penalties simply failed to offset the considerable cost of cleaning up rubbish throughout the city: “It is technically possible to implement the proposal with the available resources,” he said, adding, “it does not involve significant costs.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City Council in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, has introduced strict new fines of \u20ac750 (\u00a3650) for making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,8845,11,12,15,16,5,14586,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-429508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-holidays","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-spain-holidays","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news","24":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116381370775939808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}