Car parking space is a limited commodity. Easy access to private car parks is also in the interests of the general public. The absence of access restrictions (e.g. barriers) is in your favour as a user, but also leads to increased abuse. This is particularly the case in city centre locations and commercial centres, where parking demand is high but parking space is limited.

Professional parking management is required in a private car park, e.g. for a shop or doctor's surgery, if the actual customers or patients are no longer able to use this car park due to incorrect and long-term parking. This can lead to considerable losses in turnover and problems and can go so far that customers or patients stay away from the shops and surgeries permanently if they are regularly unable to find a parking space. You can assume that such an abuse problem existed in all of the car parks we manage.

All car parks monitored by us are private premises. We are commissioned by the respective owner, leaseholder or tenant of the parking area to carry out the monitoring and are therefore not only authorised but also obliged to do so.

In order for us to be able to request the owner data of the vehicle registered for a parking offence from the Federal Motor Transport Authority in Flensburg, we must submit the corresponding authorisation for each parking area for inspection and provide proof of our authorisation. The Federal Motor Transport Authority will only provide us with information about keeper data once our authorisation to make a keeper enquiry has been confirmed.

In addition, each individual keeper enquiry must be justified. Such a reason may be, for example, exceeding the parking time in accordance with the contractual and parking conditions of a car park.

Even permanent video surveillance on private property is permitted if the duty to inform is complied with, legitimate interests are pursued and named and the measure is suitable for achieving the desired purposes. Legitimate interests include the protection of domestic authority, protection against theft and burglary and the possibility of investigating such offences. In this context, we refer to Art. 6 GDPR "Lawfulness of processing".

To preserve evidence in the event of parking offences, we only take still images with time stamps when vehicles enter and exit, on which the number plates of the vehicles can be recognised. We exclude the recording of public spaces or third-party properties through technical measures, among other things. Permanent video recording does not take place at any time and the possibility of this is technically severely restricted. Nevertheless, video surveillance is indicated on the signage on site (e.g. with the familiar camera pictogram), as this is generally possible with the camera technology used.

The recorded still images are transmitted in encrypted form to our servers in Germany and are only collected for the purpose of safeguarding the above-mentioned legitimate interests and for statistical evaluations, such as the utilisation of the parking area. Images that are not required to safeguard legitimate interests, i.e. of vehicles that have not been used to violate the terms of the contract and parking conditions, will be deleted immediately.

If you can prove (e.g. with a picture of your receipt) that you made a purchase at the time in question and used the parking space in accordance with the conditions, we will of course cancel the usage fee. Please note that we cannot generally recognise a purchase of a few euros, for example, as proof of authorised use if the parking time is significantly exceeded.

In demonstrable cases of hardship, we will waive our claim in part or in full at our discretion. Please contact us in this regard.

The maximum parking time already includes an appropriate time buffer for the respective car park and the local shops or surgeries. In many cases, the signposted maximum parking time is a multiple of the time normally required (e.g. for shopping) and small delays are therefore taken into account. In addition, depending on the area, we usually grant an additional 5 to 10 minutes of goodwill on top of the signposted maximum parking time. However, there is no entitlement to this.

It is true that the contract for the use of the vehicle parking space is only concluded between the operator of the private car park and the vehicle driver, which the vehicle driver accepts by parking the vehicle. The offer contained in the provision of the car park is therefore valid without the submission of an express declaration (so-called real offer). The keeper is not liable for offences committed by the driver.

However, in this case the vehicle owner is obliged to name the driver of the vehicle. If the keeper refuses to provide this information, he can be prosecuted for the offence. The Federal Court of Justice established this in its ruling of 18 December 2019 (case no. XII ZR 13/19):

"However, the vehicle owner whom the operator of a free car park claims as the driver of the vehicle for an "increased parking fee" has a secondary burden of proof. In order to effectively deny his status as a driver, he must present who can be considered as the user of the vehicle at the time in question."

By parking the vehicle in the car park, the driver accepts the contractual and parking conditions applicable in the area, see also "I was not driving at the time in question. Why should I name the driver?". These contract and parking conditions are signposted at all entrances to the respective car park. The Federal Court of Justice writes in its ruling of 18 December 2019 (Ref. XII ZR 13/19):

"According to the case law of the Federal Court of Justice, a rental contract for a vehicle parking space is concluded between the owner or operator of a private car park for a fee and the vehicle driver by the vehicle driver accepting the offer, which is a real offer in the provision of the parking space, by parking the vehicle (§§145, 151 BGB). No further declarations of intent are required for this (see BGH judgement of 18 December 2015 -VZR160/14-NJW 2016, 863 para. 15). The same applies to the use of a car park provided free of charge - as in this case - which leads to the implied conclusion of a rental agreement within the meaning of Section 598 BGB."

If you have paid a higher amount than is shown in the payment request issued to you or another receipt, please inform us by telephone / e-mail. We will be happy to refund the difference.  

Please note  

A processing fee of € 5.80 will be charged for the refund. This fee will be deducted directly from the refund amount. There will be no refund if the refundable amount is less than the processing fee. 

Our signage meets the usual requirements for visibility in a car park. The low speed required in car parks is also taken into account. The installation is customised to the area and must be located on the private property itself. This means that even if this would further increase visibility, signage cannot be placed on third-party/public land in front of the area. As a rule, the dimensions of our information signs at the entrances are approx. 98 x 65 cm, plus additional signs for contractual and parking conditions as well as information on data protection.

The assertion made by some lawyers on the Internet that the signage on most private car parks is too small and therefore contestable does not correspond to reality. For the inclusion of general terms and conditions in the contract (see question "Why do I owe a contractual penalty, I have not entered into a contract?"), the user must only be given the opportunity to "reasonably [...] take note of their content" (§305 BGB). This also means that the details of the signposted information, including the contractual and parking conditions, do not have to be recognisable exclusively when driving past with a vehicle.

Section 56 (1) of the German Administrative Offences Act (OWiG) stipulates a warning fine of EUR 5 to 55 for minor administrative offences. Our contractual penalties are therefore regularly within a reasonable range.

In contrast to the warning fines imposed by the administrative authorities, private companies incur further not inconsiderable direct costs for the operation and maintenance of the systems, as well as for identifying the owner (especially in the case of vehicles with foreign licence plates).

In its ruling of 18 December 2019 (case no. XII ZR 13/19), the Federal Court of Justice stated, among other things, regarding the amount of the usage fee

"The lower limit of €30 is a suitable and appropriate means of exerting pressure to deter drivers from parking illegally. It is also not disproportionate to the penalised parking offences and does not place an undue burden on the user."

Yes, as long as it is ensured that the entrances and exits have been correctly recorded. To do this, all entrances to the parking area must be checked and the entries and exits documented, which in our case is done with licence plate scanners that automatically store still images of the vehicle together with the licence plate number and time stamp.

It can be assumed that a vehicle that has been in a designated parking area for a longer period of time has been parked there. Where exactly in the car park the vehicle was parked during this period is irrelevant, as only the duration of use is relevant for determining whether a parking time has been exceeded. For the documentation of a parking time violation in closed parking facilities, it is also irrelevant whether the vehicle is moved several times during the stay within the facility or permanently (e.g. in a pay and display car park). Our contract and parking conditions, which are signposted in the parking area and which the user recognises when entering the parking area, define the user's obligation to comply with the maximum parking time signposted and that the usage time is measured from entry to exit.

As we generally only monitor entrances and exits and only record still images in black and white (see: Is number plate recognition legal?) without permanent video surveillance, we are regularly unable to assist in the investigation of criminal offences. For data protection reasons, it is also generally not possible to provide information on the entry or exit of certain vehicles, licence plates or vehicle owners.

Of course, we will release data collected by us on the basis of a court order, but as a precautionary measure we would like to point out that, in the interests of data minimisation, we only store data that is absolutely necessary to safeguard legitimate interests.