AD/Utrechts Nieuwsblad, 12 February 2015: 'Utrecht sticks to license plate parking'

"Utrecht is sticking to so-called license plate parking, despite the Amsterdam court ruling that mistyping a license plate when parking a car should have no consequences.

According to municipalities, parking without proper entry of the license plate is the same as unpaid parking. The court disagrees.

The court drew a line under the fines Amsterdam had issued because the drivers could prove they had paid by other means.

The lawsuit had been filed by Bas Filippini, president of Privacy First. Filippini was fined for not entering his license plate number in a parking meter.

Utrecht also has parking by license plate. And here, too, the wrong license plate number is sometimes typed in when parking, says spokesman Erik Suik. But all these times it has happened, it is certainly not deliberate,
says Suik. He does not expect that after the court ruling, parkers will now deliberately enter a wrong license plate number. "We are not going to upset the system. There is no need for that."

Utrecht imposed 40,000 fines and surcharges last year for non-payment of parking fees. 4,500 objections were received against this. Of these, 1,000 were upheld."

Source: AD/Utrechts Nieuwsblad 12 February 2015, p. 6.