Sadiq Khan has been urged to apologise to the “hundreds of thousands” of EU citizens who were allegedly wrongly fined for driving in the ultra-low emission zone.
Last month Transport for London was accused of illegally obtaining the names and addresses of citizens on the Continent to issue fines.
Transport authorities in Belgium, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands claimed personal details about drivers were acquired by Transport for London’s debt collection agency.
More than 100 drivers in France launched legal action over the issue and Dutch lorry drivers are also reportedly taking action against TfL over £6.5m of fines they claim were issued unlawfully.
It is thought hundreds of thousands of motorists in Europe have been sent Ulez fines after driving in London.
Many of the penalties have been issued to drivers who visited London in Ulez-compliant vehicles but were not aware they had to be registered with TfL’s collections agent Euro Parking at least 10 days before their visit.
Failure to register does not count as a contravention, according to Ulez rules, but some drivers still received penalties of up to five-figure sums, the Guardian reported.
TfL has previously denied breaching data protection laws.
On Thursday the London Assembly urged the Mayor to carry out a full investigation into the issue and to do whatever it takes to sort the situation out.
Conservative assembly member Neil Garratt said: “We’re calling on the Mayor to ensure there is a full investigation into how hundreds of thousands of EU citizens were wrongly fined for driving in the Ulez.
“This has been described as possibly one of the largest data breaches in EU history.
“The Assembly today called on the Mayor to apologise to everyone who has been inconvenienced, to cancel all these fines, and to ensure this never happens again.”
A TfL spokesperson said: “Any company working on our behalf is contractually required to ensure that data is processed in line with the relevant data protection legislation.
“We work closely with European Parking Collection (EPC) to ensure all elements of the contract are being adhered to and have mechanisms in place should they not be fulfilled. EPC make it clear when they submit requests for keeper data in EU countries that they are acting on behalf of TfL, for enforcement of road user charging in London, even when they route those requests through a third party.
"EPC has not been prevented from accessing keeper data for drivers in EU countries. Despite an absence of country to country data sharing agreements, we understand that under local laws, some vehicle licensing authorities are obliged to share vehicle owner information with authorities outside of their country to assist with the enforcement of traffic regulations."
