The number plate parking system in the municipality of Amsterdam is a “justified interference with the right to private life”, the Supreme Court Friday judged. According to the court, the system does not violate the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The municipality of Amsterdam uses a number plate parking system whereby a parking person must provide the number plate of his car via the parking meter or mobile phone in order to pay parking tax. Scan cars check whether parkers have paid this payment and store the parker’s data encrypted.
If a parker has not paid the tax, this encryption will be undone and the tax official will request the registration holder’s personal data from the National Road Traffic Service (RDW). He can then impose an additional assessment for parking tax.
One interested party found that the system violates the ECHR and infringes people’s private lives. He first went to the Amsterdam Court of Appeal, which ruled that there was no breach of private life, and then appealed.
On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the number plate parking system in Amsterdam does indeed involve interference by the municipality in private life. In this case, however, this interference is justified according to the court because “the requirement to provide the registration number can be read in the Parking Ordinance 2013 of the municipality of Amsterdam in combination with the Municipalities Act”, the court ruled.