Plaintiff 1, Plaintiff 2, and Clara Wichmann Bureau Foundation – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2024)

Two data subjects wanted to register as street sex workers in the prostitution zone of the municipality Nijmegen. This registration is mandatory for offering sexual services as the General Municipal Ordinance Nijmegen (“Algemene Plaatselijke Verordening Nijmegen - APV”) prohibits street prostitution in the municipality, except in designated areas. On 22 March 2022, the municipal executive (“het college”) designated a section of a street as an area where street prostitution was permitted, provided certain conditions are met. This was the designation decree (”aanwijzingsbesluit"). The conditions included mandatory registration with the mayor for street sex workers, who had to be at least 18 years old, and could either demonstrate that they were working as street sex workers in the city since 2020, or that they utilised healthcare services for street sex workers in the city since that date. On 27 and 28 April 2022, the data subjects submitted their application for registration in the new designated area to the mayor of the municipality (the controller). On 4 July 2022, the controller told the data subjects it would reject their application, to which the data subjects submitted a statement with their views to the controller. On 1 August 2022, the controller still rejected both applications, because the data subjects failed to adhere to the conditions for the registration. On 9 September 2022, the data subjects objected to the rejections together with Bureau Clara Wichmann (“Stichting Bureau Clara Wichmann – BCW”), a legal entity advocating for women's rights and combating gender discrimination. On 10 July 2023, the controller dismissed the objection. Following this, the data subjects together with BCW filed an appeal against the controller's decision at the District Court of First Instance of Gelderland ("Rechtbank Gelderland"). The data subjects argued that the registration requirement, along with the conditions attached to it, was in conflict with the GDPR and [htt