Thousands of penalty notices for breaches of London’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) rules may have been illegally sent to drivers of EU-registered vehicles, Belgian authorities claim.
The Belgian transport ministry has ordered an investigation into alleged data breaches after motorists received penalty notices from a collection agency working for Transport for London (TfL).
Since Brexit, UK authorities no longer have access to EU citizens’ personal data for non-criminal enforcement purposes. However, drivers from several EU countries have received fines, many totalling thousands of pounds, for failing to register their EU-compliant cars with TfL before entering London.
Some were mistakenly fined under the separate Low Emission Zone (Lez), which applies to heavy goods vehicles entering Greater London. One driver was fined nearly £11,000 after a three-day visit in a hired car.
A Belgian bailiff acting for TfL’s collection agent, Euro Parking Collection, is accused of abusing his legal powers to obtain more than 20,000 registered owner details and pass them on to Euro Parking for enforcement in the UK. The bailiff has since had his official access to the vehicle registration database suspended pending disciplinary proceedings, while Belgian MPs have called on their government to take action to recover the money paid by motorists.
Meanwhile, the Dutch authorities have intervened after drivers’ details were allegedly illegally obtained by an agent in Italy acting for Euro Parking, and a group of 100 French drivers have launched a legal action claiming their details were illegally obtained.
According to Belgian MP Michael Freilich, who uncovered the alleged data misuse, Euro Parking is circumventing GDPR rules by employing EU-based agents to obtain driver data on its behalf without disclosing that it will be shared with a UK company. In correspondence seen, the Belgian bailiff was twice denied permission to use the vehicle licensing database for the purposes of Ulez enforcement.
However, according to Freilich, the bailiff still used his official licence to obtain the details of drivers who were then fined by Euro Parking Collection (EPC).
“EPC should immediately cease these operations, if necessary by government action,” he said. “Furthermore, they should be forced to repay all ill-gotten gains.”
The Dutch vehicle registration authority, RDW, said in June that it had launched an investigation after receiving complaints from drivers who had received hefty fines after visiting London in emissions-compliant cars. It said there was no data-sharing agreement between the UK and the Netherlands for Ulez enforcement and that it had passed driver details to an agent in Italy, implying it was for enforcement within the EU.
A spokesman said: “We have advised EPC that there is no legal basis to request information from our register under this purpose limitation.”
TfL, commenting on behalf of Euro Parking, said it was up to individual vehicle licensing authorities to decide whether to release keeper details if they were satisfied with the reason for the request. It claimed that no Belgian data has been shared with the EPC since 2022, when it was made aware that this was unlawful.
TfL said: “Any company working on our behalf is contractually required to ensure that data is processed in accordance with relevant data protection legislation, and no Belgian driver data has been shared with us or EPC since the Belgian National Chamber of Judicial Officers’ decision came into force.”