What is something that is surprisingly illegal in your country?
July 27, 2025
What is weirdly illegal in your country?
39 comments
fireworks Ireland also buying duty free tobacco and fags will have you up in front of a judge
In the UK, it is illegal to handle salmon suspiciously
Wild Camping. If you do not go to designated areas (RV/Caravan* trailer parks, or a specific location for tents), you will be fined around the thousands. This also includes no wild cooking, even if you are an expert with +492957 years of cook out experience.
Production, dissemination, importation and sale of pornography is illegal according to the penal code. The ban is however not enforced by the authorities anymore except in the case of professional third-party production and large-scale dissemination.
One can make home pornography and distribute it online but a local production company can not be involved. Watching pornography online is also fine as long as the streaming or video service is not located in Iceland. Sex shops sold pornography back in the day of VHS and DVD and were largely left alone by the authorities.
The authorities have basically tried to do the bare minimum to uphold the ban without being overly prudish. There has not been any political will to change the ban since no politician wants to be “pro-pornography”, yet we all watch it so we just largely ignore the ban.
In Ireland, it is illegal to consume alcohol on the street (far from our perception abroad!).
Selling drugs through these Coffee shops is legalised but getting the drugs as a business is illegal
All offensive weapons.
And less seriously
“Worrying Fish”
In some States in Germany, it is forbidden to show the film “The Life of Brian” in public on Good Friday.
Germany
It’s a crime to insult people (which is stupid imho).
One-time use vape is illegal in Hungary. Usage is not criminalized but you can’t buy them legally within the borders.
In Poland, if your spouse dies and you have no children, and there is no will, the wife inherits half of the estate, while the other half goes to the deceased spouse’s parents. If the parents are no longer alive, the inheritance passes to his/her siblings. This can lead to situations where you buy a house with a loan, and suddenly half of it belongs to your husband’s family.
Norway.
Illegal to honk more than two times in a row, unless it’s an emergency.
Illegal to own more than twice the amount of dogs to cats. For example 2 dogs and 1 cat is ok. But 3 dogs and 1 cat is not okay.
Due to having modern laws we do not have funny baggage of past laws in Poland, but if I had to give some funny examples:
* It is illegall to be driving any mechanical and non-mechanical vehicle while drunk; mechanical is understandable but non-mechanical means that you are forbidden from driving stuff like bikes, wheelchairs or horse pulled carts (with drunken carts drivers being caught and punished way too often from expected).
* There is also a funny rule that a biker kid under age of 10th under a care of an adult is treated as a pedestrian for all purpose, so kid on a bike is forbidden from traveling on a bike road.
Considering how much drinking is a part of our identity, the fact it’s illegal to drink in public spaces *is* quite odd and it’s an unpopular law besides. Even I have mixed feelings, as someone who doesn’t drink.
Italy has some weird things going on with shoes, clothing, washing and bees:
– you can’t wear clogs in Capri
– you need to wear appropriate shoes to hike in Cinque Terre
– you need to have at least one bidet in your home
– If your swarm of bees leaves your land and moves onto another farmer’s property, you are allowed to enter their land to retrieve your swarm. But if you fail to do so, after two days the swarm becomes the property of the other farmer.
We’re lucky though — the law that prevented parents from using geographical names for their children was recently repealed. Until then, the only geographical names allowed in Italy were Italia, Europa, Asia, and America. Now anyone can be named Helsinki, Istanbul or K2.
In Germany it is illegal to run out of gas on the Autobahn.
It is illegal to own picklocks unless your job requires it.
Not my country, but I was so surprised that in Poland it is illegal to drink alcohol in the street.
I have heard that some foreigners find it weird that it is illegal to carry more than 2kg of mushrooms out of a forest here. The fines range around 200 and 400eur.
There are also rules how the mushrooms should be picked, and that they should always be carried out in breathable baskets, never sealed plastic bags. But I don’t know if this is part of the law, or enforced in any kind of way.
[deleted]
In this country it doesn’t matter what you write in your will/testimony, your closest family always inherits.
In Switzerland you cannot have one single guinea pig or rabbit as a pet, must be at least a couple (they are called social animals).
You cannot bring garbage to a recycling collection point on Sundays.
Piss in the sea…
In my country Portugal is the ONLY country on the world its illegal.
Its crazy but true. 🤣🤣
Up until two years ago, it was illegal in Sweden to allow people to dance at your establishment unless you had a dance permit. So if you have a bar with no dance permit and people start dancing, you’re breaking the law unless you immediately put a stop to the illegal dance.
There’s no longer a dance permit required, but all planned dancing events must still be reported in advance.
In Ireland it’s illegal to serve alcohol before 12:30 pm on paddy’s day
Blasphemy, which means that:
“Anyone who publically mocks God, or intentionally taunts or desecrates that which is held holy by the Evangelical Lutheran, or Orthodox church, or any other registered religious organization, or with noise, threats or any other method disturbs the service of god, other religious rituals or burial” is commiting a crime.
It’s weird since you’d think this law existed to protect or placate christianity, but actually it protects religious freedom. You are free to believe whatever you want, but you can not publically insult any other religion.
Edit: The punishment if you get one at all is basically a fine at most.
Germany has some crazy carry laws for knifes. You cannot carry and knifes that are both one handed opend, and lock the blade. If it only has one of these two features its fine. Knifes that need two hands to open can be carried, without any length limit, which resulted in a german company developing such a knife in the size of a machete. Also the law does not prohibt you from carrying it in its opend form. Machetes that cannot be folded with two hands are illegal to carry of course, as germany has 12cm max for carrying fixed blade knifes. Also dagger blades cannot be carried.
In Sweden it’s illegal to buy custom videos from OF but ordinary porn is a-ok because reasons 🙄🤡
Children must be raised in the fear of God (Germany, Baden-Württemberg consitution, Art. 12.1). Raising atheistic children is therefore illegal.
Some pubs and bars require a dance permit for people to dance.
In Ireland, if it is found that any creature of folklore like na Daoine Maithe (fairy folk) are proven to be absolutely real, it is illegal to bring them any harm, and they are under full protection of thr law.
While this next one is not necessarily law, it is generally accepted in Irish society to never harm a fairy tree, ring fort, hill fort, fairy rock, sidheán (a spot in the bog lived on by fairies) or a fairy path.
Switzerland again (but not silly), it’s illegal to strike.
In Sweden, it’s forbidden by law to be a criminal…
No, but jokes aside, we recently recieved a new law, making it illegal to threaten or insult state officials. From what I’ve heard on the news, there have been around 12 filings since the introduction, and all but one of them were quickly dismissed.
In Slovakia, it’s illegal to “gamble” on Good Friday and 24th/25th of December. Including buying lottery tickets and doing sports betting. Including online. The websites literally stop taking bets and selling lottery tickets at midnight and then reopen when the ban is lifted.
Denmark: Slingshots are illigal.
Any size, any ammo, anywhere, no exceptions. Our weapon laws can be vague in many areas, but that one specifically is very clear.
However, trebuchets of any size are perfectly legal. Just putting that out there.
It’s illegal for the King to enter the city of London without prior permission, however as of now Charles has freedom of the city so it’s a bit of a contradictory situation.
If you are younger than 21 or new driver, you can’t drive between 23 and 6 or drive car with more than 109hp
In sweden you werent allowed to sell your own commersial alcohol at your brewery until this year. Now you can, as long as you have at least a 15 minutes long edjucation about the risk of drinking alcohol to the buyer.
In most European cities, it is illegal for pedestrians to cross the road when the pedestrian traffic lights are red. Even if there is no traffic. You can only go when lights are green.
In the UK you can legally cross whatever colour the lights are.
39 comments
fireworks Ireland also buying duty free tobacco and fags will have you up in front of a judge
In the UK, it is illegal to handle salmon suspiciously
Wild Camping. If you do not go to designated areas (RV/Caravan* trailer parks, or a specific location for tents), you will be fined around the thousands. This also includes no wild cooking, even if you are an expert with +492957 years of cook out experience.
Production, dissemination, importation and sale of pornography is illegal according to the penal code. The ban is however not enforced by the authorities anymore except in the case of professional third-party production and large-scale dissemination.
One can make home pornography and distribute it online but a local production company can not be involved. Watching pornography online is also fine as long as the streaming or video service is not located in Iceland. Sex shops sold pornography back in the day of VHS and DVD and were largely left alone by the authorities.
The authorities have basically tried to do the bare minimum to uphold the ban without being overly prudish. There has not been any political will to change the ban since no politician wants to be “pro-pornography”, yet we all watch it so we just largely ignore the ban.
In Ireland, it is illegal to consume alcohol on the street (far from our perception abroad!).
Selling drugs through these Coffee shops is legalised but getting the drugs as a business is illegal
All offensive weapons.
And less seriously
“Worrying Fish”
In some States in Germany, it is forbidden to show the film “The Life of Brian” in public on Good Friday.
Germany
It’s a crime to insult people (which is stupid imho).
One-time use vape is illegal in Hungary. Usage is not criminalized but you can’t buy them legally within the borders.
In Poland, if your spouse dies and you have no children, and there is no will, the wife inherits half of the estate, while the other half goes to the deceased spouse’s parents. If the parents are no longer alive, the inheritance passes to his/her siblings. This can lead to situations where you buy a house with a loan, and suddenly half of it belongs to your husband’s family.
Norway.
Illegal to honk more than two times in a row, unless it’s an emergency.
Illegal to own more than twice the amount of dogs to cats. For example 2 dogs and 1 cat is ok. But 3 dogs and 1 cat is not okay.
Due to having modern laws we do not have funny baggage of past laws in Poland, but if I had to give some funny examples:
* It is illegall to be driving any mechanical and non-mechanical vehicle while drunk; mechanical is understandable but non-mechanical means that you are forbidden from driving stuff like bikes, wheelchairs or horse pulled carts (with drunken carts drivers being caught and punished way too often from expected).
* There is also a funny rule that a biker kid under age of 10th under a care of an adult is treated as a pedestrian for all purpose, so kid on a bike is forbidden from traveling on a bike road.
Considering how much drinking is a part of our identity, the fact it’s illegal to drink in public spaces *is* quite odd and it’s an unpopular law besides. Even I have mixed feelings, as someone who doesn’t drink.
Italy has some weird things going on with shoes, clothing, washing and bees:
– you can’t wear clogs in Capri
– you need to wear appropriate shoes to hike in Cinque Terre
– you need to have at least one bidet in your home
– If your swarm of bees leaves your land and moves onto another farmer’s property, you are allowed to enter their land to retrieve your swarm. But if you fail to do so, after two days the swarm becomes the property of the other farmer.
We’re lucky though — the law that prevented parents from using geographical names for their children was recently repealed. Until then, the only geographical names allowed in Italy were Italia, Europa, Asia, and America. Now anyone can be named Helsinki, Istanbul or K2.
In Germany it is illegal to run out of gas on the Autobahn.
It is illegal to own picklocks unless your job requires it.
Not my country, but I was so surprised that in Poland it is illegal to drink alcohol in the street.
I have heard that some foreigners find it weird that it is illegal to carry more than 2kg of mushrooms out of a forest here. The fines range around 200 and 400eur.
There are also rules how the mushrooms should be picked, and that they should always be carried out in breathable baskets, never sealed plastic bags. But I don’t know if this is part of the law, or enforced in any kind of way.
[deleted]
In this country it doesn’t matter what you write in your will/testimony, your closest family always inherits.
In Switzerland you cannot have one single guinea pig or rabbit as a pet, must be at least a couple (they are called social animals).
You cannot bring garbage to a recycling collection point on Sundays.
Wild camping is allowed only above the tree line.
[You get a fine if you buy a bus ticket 1 second too late](https://www.reddit.com/r/Switzerland/s/EejfXHwfkH)
Piss in the sea…
In my country Portugal is the ONLY country on the world its illegal.
Its crazy but true. 🤣🤣
Up until two years ago, it was illegal in Sweden to allow people to dance at your establishment unless you had a dance permit. So if you have a bar with no dance permit and people start dancing, you’re breaking the law unless you immediately put a stop to the illegal dance.
There’s no longer a dance permit required, but all planned dancing events must still be reported in advance.
In Ireland it’s illegal to serve alcohol before 12:30 pm on paddy’s day
Blasphemy, which means that:
“Anyone who publically mocks God, or intentionally taunts or desecrates that which is held holy by the Evangelical Lutheran, or Orthodox church, or any other registered religious organization, or with noise, threats or any other method disturbs the service of god, other religious rituals or burial” is commiting a crime.
It’s weird since you’d think this law existed to protect or placate christianity, but actually it protects religious freedom. You are free to believe whatever you want, but you can not publically insult any other religion.
Edit: The punishment if you get one at all is basically a fine at most.
Germany has some crazy carry laws for knifes. You cannot carry and knifes that are both one handed opend, and lock the blade. If it only has one of these two features its fine. Knifes that need two hands to open can be carried, without any length limit, which resulted in a german company developing such a knife in the size of a machete. Also the law does not prohibt you from carrying it in its opend form. Machetes that cannot be folded with two hands are illegal to carry of course, as germany has 12cm max for carrying fixed blade knifes. Also dagger blades cannot be carried.
In Sweden it’s illegal to buy custom videos from OF but ordinary porn is a-ok because reasons 🙄🤡
Children must be raised in the fear of God (Germany, Baden-Württemberg consitution, Art. 12.1). Raising atheistic children is therefore illegal.
Some pubs and bars require a dance permit for people to dance.
In Ireland, if it is found that any creature of folklore like na Daoine Maithe (fairy folk) are proven to be absolutely real, it is illegal to bring them any harm, and they are under full protection of thr law.
While this next one is not necessarily law, it is generally accepted in Irish society to never harm a fairy tree, ring fort, hill fort, fairy rock, sidheán (a spot in the bog lived on by fairies) or a fairy path.
Switzerland again (but not silly), it’s illegal to strike.
In Sweden, it’s forbidden by law to be a criminal…
No, but jokes aside, we recently recieved a new law, making it illegal to threaten or insult state officials. From what I’ve heard on the news, there have been around 12 filings since the introduction, and all but one of them were quickly dismissed.
In Slovakia, it’s illegal to “gamble” on Good Friday and 24th/25th of December. Including buying lottery tickets and doing sports betting. Including online. The websites literally stop taking bets and selling lottery tickets at midnight and then reopen when the ban is lifted.
Denmark: Slingshots are illigal.
Any size, any ammo, anywhere, no exceptions. Our weapon laws can be vague in many areas, but that one specifically is very clear.
However, trebuchets of any size are perfectly legal. Just putting that out there.
It’s illegal for the King to enter the city of London without prior permission, however as of now Charles has freedom of the city so it’s a bit of a contradictory situation.
If you are younger than 21 or new driver, you can’t drive between 23 and 6 or drive car with more than 109hp
In sweden you werent allowed to sell your own commersial alcohol at your brewery until this year. Now you can, as long as you have at least a 15 minutes long edjucation about the risk of drinking alcohol to the buyer.
In most European cities, it is illegal for pedestrians to cross the road when the pedestrian traffic lights are red. Even if there is no traffic. You can only go when lights are green.
In the UK you can legally cross whatever colour the lights are.