What Article 152² of the Administrative Offences Code covers
Article 152² of the Code of Administrative Offences of Georgia protects the ability of citizens to use public places. The norm punishes the unauthorised restriction of the use of public places — situations where someone, arbitrarily and without the corresponding right, limits the ability of others to use such a place. In practice this means blocking, obstructing or otherwise restricting access to a part of a street, an avenue, a park or another public space.
The article is built of two parts: the first governs the very fact of the arbitrary restriction, and the second its non-correction within a fixed period after the fine. This structure matters practically: if the breach is not remedied after the first fine, the sanction rises sharply.
The sanction under the first part
Under the first part, the unauthorised restriction of the use of public places entails a fine of 500 GEL for a physical person and 2,000 GEL for a legal person. The sanction is differentiated by the type of person, so the qualification of the case must establish precisely against whom it is applied.
The aggravating consequence of non-correction
The second part is considerably stricter: where the breach covered by the first part is not corrected within 20 days of the fine, the physical person is fined 3,000 GEL and the legal person 4,000 GEL. Twenty days is thus the window within which the consequence of the breach must be removed — the public place must again become accessible. If that does not happen, the fine multiplies.
The practical conclusion is simple: from the very first fine, every episode of blocking a public place must be treated as a separate matter. Removing the consequence and lifting the restriction matters more than paying the fine, because it is precisely the non-correction that switches the case to the second, strict part.
What the article does not say
Article 152² is short: it contains only the description of the breaches and the two sanctions. It does not explain which places count as public, which competence governs the lawful form of a restriction, or how a case is examined — those matters are regulated by other norms. The factual side therefore becomes central to the assessment of the case: to what extent use was restricted, whether there was a basis for it, and whether the consequence was removed within twenty days.
How we can help
The lawyers of legal.ge will assess the lawfulness of the restriction — whether it had any basis — verify the fine decision and the counting of the periods, defend you before the reviewing authority and prepare an appeal. For a consultation, bring the fine decision, documents connected with the territory, photographs, and your identity or registration documents. And remember the twenty-day period — it is the window in which removing the consequence saves you from the increased fine.
How the case is assessed and what a lawyer checks
Several factual questions become central in the examination of the case. First — whether the place whose use was restricted was in fact public: the notion is not defined in the article itself and flows from other norms, so establishing the boundaries is the first task. Second — whether the restriction was truly arbitrary: whether any legal basis existed that would have made the act lawful. Third — who the violator is and which amount of fine applies. Fourth — whether the twenty-day period was counted correctly and whether the non-correction was recorded in time.
In practice, business facilities are often fined under this article for restricting a pavement or a part of a street with terraces, trading objects or construction. For them the risk of the second part is especially high: construction is often not completed within twenty days, and the fine moves from 2,000 to 4,000 GEL. Timely legalisation — obtaining a legal basis for the restriction at the very first stage — is therefore decisive for a business.
The prospects of an appeal depend on the details of the case: where the protocol does not precisely describe which territory was restricted and how, or where the periods are counted incorrectly, those procedural errors become grounds for appeal. Each such detail must be read from the case materials by a lawyer.