Telegraph, 15 Oct 2013: Lawsuit against license plate parking; 'Eliciting ruling on registration and privacy'

“Foundation chairman Bas Filippini Privacy First is personally filing a lawsuit against the municipality of Amsterdam in connection with license plate parking. Privacy First wants to know from the court whether motorists who pay but do not fill in their registration number on the ticket may rightly be fined.

We demand that compulsory license plate registration be ended immediately and that car owners be allowed to decide for themselves whether or not to fill in their license plates. Furthermore, we are in favour of parking space registration, so that you actually pay for the space. That way, there can also be no misuse of citizens' privacy data, the foundation said.

Earlier, the foundation called on people to send a letter of objection to the municipality protesting against the introduction of compulsory license plate registration. Since then, several dozen Amsterdam residents have complied, but the municipality cannot yet comment on it. However, the municipality has ordered the removal of all license plate data from the database.

Term

We have no problem with the license plates of 'wrong-way parkers' being stored for a period of 13 weeks. This is because of the time limits for possible objection and appeal, says Vincent Böhre of Privacy First.

According to the foundation, the Inland Revenue would have eagerly used the stored license plates. We believe that a normal citizen should be able to move anonymously in public spaces without being tracked by their license plates. Moreover, one should also be able to pay parking charges in cash, as it is, after all, a legal tender. The municipality is now implementing a policy whereby parkers are constantly put under the license plate scan. We call on as many Amsterdammers as possible to support us with the lawsuit against the municipality, said Vincent Böhre."

Source: Telegraaf 15 October 2013, Amsterdam section, p. 9. Read also www.privacyfirst.nl/acties/bezwaarbrief-kentekenparkeren.html.