Computable, 3 March 2015: 'Municipality of Kampen keeps paper parking ticket for now'

"(...) At the municipality of Kampen, the parking meters from 2001 were in need of replacement. The municipality decided to leave the shell of the pillars in place and replace only the payment terminal technology. (...)

The new parking meters are (...) set up to use license plate entry, eliminating the need to print out a paper ticket and place it behind the windscreen of the car. Parking attendants can easily see by scanning the license plate whether sufficient parking fees have been paid and whether a car owner has a valid permit. But in view of the recent court ruling that municipalities cannot force motorists to give their license plates, the municipality will not discontinue paper tickets for the time being.

The lawsuit had been filed by Privacy First Foundation. The foundation calls the new method of paid parking a form of invasion of privacy. With the license plates entered and stored, the government always gets insight into where car owners are, which is not desirable, the foundation believes.

Incidentally, the Amsterdam court did not rule on privacy issues but noted that parkers who have entered their license plates incorrectly into the parking meter, but can prove that they have paid, should not be fined. The municipality's position that parking without correct entry of the license plate makes it unpaid parking is, in the court's opinion, contrary to the law."

Source: http://www.computable.nl/artikel/nieuws/overheid/5237471/1277202/programmeerfout-gaat-taxameter-geld-kosten.html, 3 March 2015.