Private parking companies cannot give parking tickets

A lawyer says the Supreme Court ruling sets a precedent for many similar cases

Lucie Rychla

A private parking company cannot play policeman and give away its own parking tickets, the Danish Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

In May 2012, a motorist parked his car at Hørsholm Midtpunkt in an area overseen by the private parking company City Parkeringsservice, which permits drivers to park free-of-charge for up to three hours.

The issue of two discs
On his windscreen, he had two different parking discs, showing the time that he parked as 15:00 and 15:15.

Just before 4 pm, a City Parkeringsservice employee noted the motorist had two parking discs in use – which is not allowed – and wrote him a ‘parking ticket’ for 590 kroner.

The judges, however, ruled in favour of the motorist because he not only fulfilled the rule ‘parking disc required’, but because both of the discs were not scheduled to expire for at least another two hours.

Setting clear boundaries
“The decision will affect the future of parking companies and district courts, who have many such cases,” Lennart Fogh, a lawyer from the Danish motorist federation, told Jyllands-Posten.

“It sets clear boundaries for what private companies can do.”

The Supreme Court stated that City Parkeringsservice should stick to its contracts when it comes to parking and leave writing out fines to police officers or inspectors who work for the municipality.

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