According to the operator, there has been an agreement in the dispute over compensation for the failed car toll. As the Kapsch company announced in a mandatory stock exchange announcement, a payment of 243 million euros is expected from the federal government “due to a comparative agreement reached with the Federal Republic of Germany”. First, the “Spiegel” reported about it.
The toll – a CSU prestige project in the then federal government – was stopped in June 2019 by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) as illegal. Immediately afterwards, the federal government terminated the contracts with the intended operators, and they initially demanded 560 million euros in damages. The federal government and the then Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) strictly rejected the claims. Arbitration proceedings then followed.
The 243 million euros should therefore be paid to the company Autoticket – the joint venture of the toll specialist Kapsch and the ticket provider Eventim should be the operator of the car toll. With the payment, “the mutual claims from the operator contract would be settled and compared,” explained Kapsch. The comparative agreement is expected to be finalized and drafted in the coming days and thus take effect.
Wissing: Compensation “bitter”
Federal Minister of Transport Volker Wissing described the damages due of 243 million euros as a “bitter sum”. The FDP politician said at the same time that the federal government had done damage limitation. Originally, there would have been a claim for damages of over 700 million euros.
Wissing called the failed car toll a serious mistake. He regrets that the amount of damages is not available for infrastructure investments.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) said in the ZDF “heute journal”: “Citizens must now evaluate politically what a Minister of Transport from the CSU, who implements CSU projects, what he ultimately brought for the taxpayer.”
