Investigators believe the names and addresses of thousands of EU drivers were illegally accessed by Italian police and shared with a company that collects Urez fines on behalf of Transport for London (TfL).
Italian data protection authorities are investigating Belgian government claims An anonymous police station misused its official powers to pass Belgian drivers’ personal information to Euro Parking Collection. Euro Parking Collection is employed by TfL to issue fines to enforce London’s Low Emission Zones (Lez) and Ultra-Low Emission Zones.
Authorities in the Netherlands and Germany also announced that their databases had been illegally accessed by Italian agents in what a Belgian lawmaker called “the biggest breach of data and privacy in the history of the EU.”
Since leaving the EU, domestic law only allows the UK to access the personal data of EU nationals in the case of criminal offences, and breaching Urez rules is a civil offence, so the fine was said to have been issued illegally. ing.
Brexit means questions have arisen about how TfL can enforce compliance with London’s clean air rules for foreign cars.
The allegations come less than two years after a Belgian court bailiff was suspended for allegedly illegally accessing a Belgian vehicle database on behalf of Europarking.
Liberal Democrat London MP Caroline Pidgeon said the issue could damage London’s international standing. She called on TfL to stop imposing fines on EU nationals using Europarking until it can ensure its practices comply with the law.
“This is yet another worrying piece of evidence that calls into question the practices that TfL and its partners use to collect driver information from within the EU,” she said.
“If this data is not collected legally, it would constitute a very serious data breach and could cause serious damage to the reputation of the Mayor of London and TfL, as well as London’s reputation as a world-class tourist destination. It will be.”
A Guardian investigation last month found that hundreds of thousands of British immigrants and EU nationals have been unfairly hit with fines since the end of the Brexit transition period in December 2020, amounting to thousands of pounds. It became clear that there were some who could climb.
Since 2021, Europarking has issued more than 330,000 fines, some totaling thousands of euros.
A number of drivers were fined for failing to pre-register their vehicles to comply with emissions regulations before entering London. Others were ordered to pay £2,000 for each day they visited the capital after their cars were wrongly classified as heavy diesel vehicles and they were charged under a separate res scheme.
In 2022, a Belgian court bailiff was accused of abusing official access to the country’s national vehicle database and passing the names and addresses of more than 20,000 drivers to Europarking. The bailiff is currently the subject of disciplinary proceedings and faces the possibility of a criminal investigation.
TfL initially claimed that no fines had been paid to Belgian residents since March 2022, when it received the investigation report. However, a freedom of information request (FoI) by the Guardian has revealed that more than 17,000 fines have been issued to Belgian drivers between March 2022 and October 2023.
In its response to FoI, TfL said: “We are aware that the Belgian National Chamber of Justice has issued a notification on March 23, 2022, suspending the activities of the country’s judicial authorities.” [vehicle registration agency] DIV was sharing data with companies that were passing the data on to foreign authorities. [Euro Parking] Since the ruling, we have not used this method to obtain details of Belgian keepers.However, this judgment does not prevent that [Euro Parking] Keeper details are no longer retrieved directly from the DIV, which is the method used in PCN. [penalty charge notices] Issued to vehicles registered in Belgium after March 23, 2022. ”
Belgian Transport Ministry confirms DIV is not allowed to share data with Europarking or TfL for UK civil enforcement purposes, then finds evidence the company was receiving information through Italian police He said he did. The force is accused of abusing the EU’s official data-sharing system by failing to disclose that the information was for British enforcement.
Italy operates four national police forces with different responsibilities, but Belgian authorities have not disclosed which units or police officers are the target of the investigation.
Belgian Transport Minister Georges Gilkinet said: “It is unacceptable that privacy laws were not respected. The investigation is still ongoing, but I will take all necessary measures against the intermediaries who illegally viewed the Belgian registration database.” I have asked my department to take action.”
The Department for Transport has written to the European Commission calling for new safeguards to prevent fraudulent operators from abusing privacy laws. Meanwhile, Belgium has ordered its London embassy to raise the issue of illegal data collection with TfL executives.
TfL, which represents Europarking, claimed it stopped requesting details of Belgian drivers in September last year due to the Ures and Rez crackdown. A spokesperson said: “Companies working on our behalf are contractually obliged to ensure that data is processed in accordance with relevant data protection legislation. EPC has confirmed that it does not use the Italian police to access driver details.”