DPA case Decision 25-07-2022 – €160 Fine (Croatia, 2022)

The case concerned criminal proceedings before the Municipal Misdemeanor Court in Zagreb. The defendant was the owner of a vehicle found by a municipal warden on 21 July 2021 in a pedestrian zone. On 8 Sepember 2021, they received a letter notification about the offense committed that day, which obliged them to provide reliable information about the person using the vehicle, in accordance with [https://www.zakon.hr/z/78/Zakon-o-sigurnosti-prometa-na-cestama Article 229 of the Act on Road Traffic Safety]. The defendant did not comply with the obligation prescribed by the article within the time limit and by that failure he committed a misdemeanor under Article 229(7) of the Act on Road Traffic Safety. The defendant was not at the scene at the time of the alleged crime, nor did the prosecutor request personal information from the defendant. However, on the basis of license plates personal information, the prosecutor established that the owner of the vehicle was the defendant. The defendant pointed out that the prosecutor clearly illegally obtained information about who was the owner of the vehicle with the registration number in question, in light of the GDPR, considering that the plate registration number was undoubtedly personal data. When presenting their defense in writing, the defendant stated that they did not fill out the driver's information notification form because the vehicle had been driven by several people, i.e. the defendant and four other family members. Therefore, they could not determine with certainty who and when was driving the vehicle, especially since it was a matter of almost two months counting from the alleged commission of the offense. It could not be expected from anyone to know who was driving the vehicle at that time. As a precaution, if the court were to take a different position, the defendant proposed to take into account mitigating circumstances, such as the fact that they had not been subject to criminal proceedings before, that t