Being able to see controversial films without traceability

On 30 July 2025, the Administrative Law Division of the Council of State (ABRvS) will consider in a court hearing whether the Personal Data Authority (AP) was justified in refusing to take enforcement action against a cinema. The cinema refused to accept privacy-friendly, cash payment when selling cinema tickets. In view of the upcoming cash acceptance obligation, this court case is highly topical.

In 2018, Arnhem-based privacy activist Michiel Jonker filed a complaint with the AP about arthouse cinema Focus Filmtheater's refusal to still sell tickets at the box office against cash payment. With debit card payment, personal data is processed that allows tracing afterwards which person saw which film. At a time of increasing disinformation uncertainty and increasing use of risk lists and AI, this has a "chilling effect". Jonker wants to be able to continue seeing cinema films anonymously, while maintaining privacy.

After seven years, the highest Dutch court will now hear the case. 

Current threats

A lot has changed in those seven years. The Corona crisis (2020-2022) made many people realise how easily their rights and freedoms could be curtailed. The Russian invasion of Ukraine (since 2022) and the internet outages (Crowdstrike in 2024, the electricity outages in Spain, Portugal and France in 2025) highlighted how important maintaining a functioning cash payment infrastructure is for national security. That infrastructure will only remain in place if it is used by many people. 

Cash acceptance obligation

Partly for these reasons, the House of Representatives passed a bill in 2024 that included a cash acceptance obligation. According to Jonker, this significantly strengthens his case: "Cash payment is very safe in this case. Soon that cinema will have to accept cash anyway, and then it will turn out that it can do just fine. As a result, such a legal acceptance requirement makes it extra clear that there has never been a real need for a brand new, well-housed cinema to refuse cash. And if there is no such need, then there is also no legal basis for that refusal, and thus the enforced processing of my personal data is illegal. The AP should therefore have simply enforced it."

Contract

A special role in the case is played by the "contract" that the cinema forces on every customer in the form of general terms and conditions. According to Jonker, the arbitrary and unnecessary imposition of such a contract violates Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which requires a material necessity when a contract is not entered into voluntarily. Jonker explains this in a current addition (pdf) of his earlier appeal.

See also the timeline and previous media on the matter.