The Viennese Roman F. recently fell victim to a parking trap: a company demanded a few hundred euros via a lawyer’s letter because he allegedly stopped unlawfully in front of private property. The legal costs financier JUNO Finanz AG (Jufina) helped him to defend himself against the property interference lawsuit and to take further action against the company, which probably saw this as a business model. Mr. F. was right. Now the plaintiffs have become defendants: Not only do they have to cover the court costs, Mr. F. has now filed a counterclaim for data protection violations. The amount in dispute is 5,000 euros, Jufina assumes a conviction.
The shady parking trap business
When Mr. F. was driving through the 16th district to pick up his wife, he fell into what is known as a “parking lot trap”. At the meeting point, he stopped his car briefly on the street in front of the entrance to an abandoned gas station to load up his partner’s broken bicycle. Weeks later he received a lawyer’s letter.
The gas station is privately owned by a company that Mr. F. sued for interference with property. But he smelled possible fraud and got help from the legal costs financier Jufina. The team hired a lawyer. His clear legal opinion: The stop was covered by the road traffic regulations because Mr. F. stopped on a public road.
This is not an isolated case in Vienna, as media reports show. Automatic cameras are installed in inconspicuous places where traffic is stationary (gas stations, driveways, etc.) to photograph stopped cars. The locations are private property and lawsuits will follow based on this.
The victim – including Mr. F. – is often “invited” to sign a cease-and-desist declaration and pay a few hundred euros in legal fees in order to avoid proceedings. Particularly perfidious: Attached were alleged court rulings on similar cases as well as a letter from the ÖAMTC in which other defendants in similar cases appear to be advised against defending themselves. Both documents were partially blacked out.
The method was already known to the legal costs financier Jufina, where Mr F. received support. “These companies hope that the process is simply too laborious for those affected and that they will transfer the money quickly. Unfortunately, that works often enough. We are dealing with a real ‘warning machine’ here
“, says Stefan Schleicher, CEO of Jufina.
Together with the lawyer Dr. Florian Knaipp was sent the counterarguments to the plaintiff company. That was apparently enough: on the day of the trial, the plaintiffs didn’t even show up for the hearing. This means that Mr. F. automatically won, and the other side bears the court costs.
Counterclaim with a value of 5,000 euros
But Mr. F. and Jufina didn’t let it go. They requested personal data – such as the “evidence photos” – from the plaintiff company. When these were not transmitted, they filed a counterclaim for the release of Mr. F.’s personal data. Specifically, it’s about photos taken at parking lot traps. The process is ongoing, Schleicher is confident. The amount in dispute of 5,000 euros is significantly higher than the few hundred that the plaintiffs had hoped for. “This makes the business model simply uneconomical,” Schleicher states soberly.
The expert advises: If you receive such a letter, the first step should be to ask the complaining party what data has been stored about the alleged “troublemaker”. This allows you to assess the chances of legal resistance. For example, there is only a minor disruption if you stop on or in front of someone else’s property for just a few seconds. Stopping for up to ten minutes is also harmless as long as you do not leave the vehicle. If in doubt, you should always seek a legal opinion.
Web tip: https://jufina.at/
About Jufina:
JUNO Finanz AG (Jufina), founded in 2022, is an Austrian company that specializes in litigation financing. Jufina assumes the cost risk in legal disputes and, if successful, receives a previously agreed share of the dispute proceeds. The company’s goal is to make the enforcement of legal claims accessible to everyone. In addition to the fight against excessive rents for old buildings through its subsidiary Miet-Bremse.at, Jufina’s areas of activity include the recovery of online casino losses via https://casinolosen.com.