The "bright headlights" are actually the main headlights. The dimmer lights are simply parking lights, and I believe the infraction you got will have been from using these rather than the real full headlights.
If it's dark and your vehicle is moving, you should have (at least) the low beam lights on.
The game has four "lighting levels":
- parking lights
- low beam
- high beam
- beacon
You can see which of these is active by pressing F4
.
You switch between 1 and 2 by using the L
key, 3 is toggled using K
and 4 is toggled using O
. I'm not sure what 4 does, it doesn't seem to have an immediately visible effect. When you have the high-beam on, many of the cabs have an indicator on the dashboard for this.
Example:

The game manual has only this to say about headlights, under "Traffic Rules":
Keep your headlights on at night, just as other vehicles do.