the administrative court decisions – of which the final decision was rendered by the
Federal Administrative Court – rejecting his application for injunctive relief seeking an
order that the Free State of Bavaria refrain from conducting automatic number plate
recognition measures which might potentially record his number plates. Indirectly, he
challenges Art. 33(2) second to fifth sentences, Art. 13(1) nos. 1 to 5 and Art. 38(3)
of the Bavarian Police Act (Bayerisches Polizeiaufgabengesetz – BayPAG).
The complainant has standing to lodge a constitutional complaint. He claims that
automatic number plate recognition, to which he is subjected as a road user in
Bavaria, and the administrative court decisions denying him legal protection against
these measures violate his fundamental right to informational self-determination
(Art. 2(1) in conjunction with Art. 1(1) GG). [...]
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II.
[…]
32-33
C.
The constitutional complaint is well-founded, in part. The challenged decisions violate the complainant’s fundamental right to informational self-determination under
Art. 2(1) in conjunction with Art. 1(1) GG. The provisions directly challenged in the
constitutional complaint interfere with the complaint’s fundamental right to informational self-determination and fail, in part, to meet constitutional requirements.
34
I.
Automatic number plate recognition used to search for specific persons or objects
constitutes an interference with the complainant’s fundamental right to informational
self-determination (Art. 2(1) in conjunction with Art. 1(1) GG).
35
1. Number plate recognition affects the scope of protection of the right to informational self-determination.
36
a) The right to informational self-determination addresses risks to and violations of
an individual’s personality resulting from information-related measures, in particular
in the context of modern data processing. This right supplements and expands the
constitutional protection of free conduct and private life; this protection already takes
hold when the right of personality is at risk. Such risk to the right of personality can
occur even before there are specific threats to legal interests. By means of electronic
data processing, specific information concerning an individual’s personal or material
circumstances can be stored indefinitely and retrieved at any time and regardless of
distance in a matter of seconds. In addition, the data in question can be aligned with
data collected from other sources, allowing for diverse possibilities of use and linking.
These possibilities of use and linking may yield further information and thus lead to
conclusions that may result in the impairment of the constitutionally protected confidentiality interests of the person concerned as well as the subsequent interference
37
10/34