Has the tenant of the parking lot opposite the Marktheidenfeld post office breached data protection and forced parking offenders? The Würzburg public prosecutor’s office has dealt with this question in recent months.
Jürgen Schäfer’s post office on Karbacher Straße comes to an average of 500 customers a day. They were used to having the entire parking lot in front of the building available to them. That changed last summer when the property owner leased part of the parking spaces and the lessee began to take action against incorrectly parked postal customers using the “Park & Collect” collection service. The leaseholder hung a video camera above the entrance to the post office and passed the recordings of parking offenders to the debt collection company. They asked the parking offenders to pay around 140 euros? 35 euros of it for the parking lot leaseholder, the remainder was kept by the debt collection service.
Were postal customers filmed without permission?
The outrage of the postal customers was great: wrong parking is not right, but 140 euros is a disproportionate fine, so the tenor of those concerned, who reported to the editorial office in the summer. Jürgen Schäfer collected complaints from his customers and reported them.
The video camera not only films the leased parking spaces, but also parts of the site on which postal customers are allowed to move, according to the post owner Schäfer. That is a violation of the data protection law. After a first court order, the tenant had temporarily removed his camera ?? However, the property owner hung one up shortly afterwards. Jürgen Schäfer also accused the parking lot leaseholder of acting commercially and unjustly enriching himself with illegal parking.
The Würzburg public prosecutor’s office saw it differently and stopped the preliminary investigation last week for the time being. According to a letter from the public prosecutor’s office that is available to the editors, the “act” cannot be proven so reliably that it is sufficient for a public complaint.
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Why the prosecution closed the investigation
The fact that the surveillance camera also records the area belonging to the post office is only a “vague assumption”, according to the public prosecutor. Public space is also recorded, but it is the lawn behind the leased parking spaces. A spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office said on request that the data was “unintentionally” collected.
The public prosecutor’s office also did not see that the tenant was acting fraudulently and required the parking offenders to pay. The parking lot was signposted as a private parking lot and the fact that the collection service “Park & Collect” was making an offer of comparison to the parking offenders did not constitute a coercion.
Jürgen Schäfer now knows of more than 700 people affected. He does not yet know whether and how he will continue after the public prosecutor’s rejection. According to information from the editors, the lease for the row of parking lots has now expired and the owner is said to have sold his part of the building and thus also the parking spaces. The owner himself did not want to comment on the editors. The red and white chain with which the parking spaces were temporarily blocked off has now been cleared to the side, the “private parking” signs are still hanging.
Is the “private parking lot business model” the new grandchildren’s trick?
A warning from Marktheidenfeld who had joined the complaint against the parking lot leaseholder has already protested against the termination of the proceedings and has written to the public prosecutor in Bamberg. The high demand of 140 euros bears no relation to the actual damage suffered by the parking lot tenant ?? he therefore sees it as a necessity, argues the Marktheidenfelder.
According to his own statements, he did not park in the private parking lot, but only turned there. This cannot be checked using the images from the surveillance camera, according to the Würzburg public prosecutor’s letter of rejection. This “dispute” has to be resolved through civil law.
The clerk checks the process again
The Marktheidenfelder hopes that the public prosecutor’s office might be able to resume the investigation: “If a case with so many victims is to disappear from the table, there will soon be a ‘grandchildren’ trick ‘as well as the’ private parking lot ‘business model.”
The public prosecutor’s office in Würzburg confirmed that the complaint had been made ?? the process is therefore checked again by a clerk.
Can private parking tickets become statute-barred?
Many of those affected still received Park & Collect letters in November in which parking violations from June and July were punished. Simone Bueb from the Bavarian Consumer Association explains: “‘Normal’ parking tickets are administrative offenses and expire after three months. However, this is not an administrative offense, but a contractual penalty and a regular limitation period of three years applies.”
Source: ins
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