The Ministry of Internal Affairs changed open data about cars: license plates are no longer shown

From the open data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about vehicles, state license plates of cars have been removed. The changes are effective from July 1 and complicate vehicle checks before purchase, as well as the work of insurance companies, service stations and services for selecting auto parts.

This was reported by Opendatabot.

License plates disappeared both from the open dataset of the Main Service Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and from the information that services received through the API of the state enterprise "Infotech".

At the same time, the dataset itself was not closed. Information about vehicles continues to be updated, but already without state numbers. On the open data portal, the dataset "Information about vehicles and their owners" contains a separate resource with data for 2026, and the last update of the dataset is dated September 1.

Previously, the license plate allowed quickly identifying a specific car in open services, establishing its VIN and getting available characteristics of the machine. Now for such a check, the user needs to independently know and enter the full 17-character VIN.

This, in particular, complicates checking the history of a car before buying on the secondary market. License plate data is also used by insurance services, service stations and auto parts sellers for quick identification of the vehicle.

According to Opendatabot, the Main Service Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs links the changes with order No. 64/ОД dated June 15, 2026 and its amendments approved by order No. 67/ОД dated June 29. At the same time, from the available materials it is not clear for what exact reason state license plates were removed from the dataset.

Opendatabot notes that legislation allows restricting access to public information, but it must be justified. For this, the so-called three-part test is applied: the authority must determine the interest that could be harmed by disclosure of the data, assess the significance of such harm, and establish whether it outweighs the public interest in obtaining the information.

This approach is provided by legislation on access to public information. The Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine in its clarification on its application stated that the mere classification of data as restricted information is not enough - the restriction must pass all three parts of the test.

Whether the Main Service Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted such justification specifically for license plates is currently unknown. Opendatabot notes that without the full text of the relevant decision in the public domain, it is impossible to assess the grounds for the restriction.

Thus, information about vehicles in the open dataset of the Ministry of Internal Affairs remains available and continues to be updated, but one of the simplest identifiers of a car - the state number - has been removed from it.

Based on materials from: Opendatabot, Data.gov.ua, Legislation of Ukraine