ECJ rules German ‘user pays’ toll is ‘unlawful’

The legal framework for what the German authorities call an ‘infrastructure use charge’ has been in place since 2015, and requires passenger vehicles using the country’s highways to pay a vignette of no more than €130 per year. The legal sticking point is that, while owners of vehicles registered in Germany qualify for relief from motor vehicle tax “to an amount that is at least equivalent to the amount of the charge that they will have had to pay”, foreign drivers do not enjoy such a concession. In
June 20, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

The legal framework for what the German authorities call an ‘infrastructure use charge’ has been in place since 2015, and requires passenger vehicles using the country’s highways to pay a vignette of no more than €130 per year.

The legal sticking point is that, while owners of vehicles registered in Germany qualify for relief from motor vehicle tax “to an amount that is at least equivalent to the amount of the charge that they will have had to pay”, foreign drivers do not enjoy such a concession.

In a rare example of one EU member state in effect taking legal action against another via the ECJ, Austria (backed up by the Netherlands) argued that this put drivers from countries outside Germany at a financial disadvantage. The ECJ has agreed, saying: “The infrastructure use charge, in combination with the relief from motor vehicle tax enjoyed by the owners of vehicles registered in Germany, constitutes indirect discrimination on grounds of nationality.”

The judgment continues: “The effect of the relief from motor vehicle tax enjoyed by the owners of vehicles registered in Germany is to offset entirely the infrastructure use charge paid by those persons, with the result that the economic burden of that charge falls, de facto, solely on the owners and drivers of vehicles registered in other member states.”

Germany’s intention was to move to financing road infrastructure on the ‘user pays’ and ‘polluter pays’ principles, calculating costs on the basis of a vehicle’s cylinder capacity, engine type and emission standard.

But the ECJ is not convinced, saying: “Germany has not established how the discrimination found to arise could be justified by environmental or other considerations.

Charging, Tolling & RUC

Related Content

  • TM 2.0 boost TMC data feed and driver influence
    November 15, 2017
    TM 2.0 views connected vehicles and V2I as two-way communications channels, benefitting traffic management and drivers, as Alan Dron discovers. As connected vehicles are progressively rolled out there will come a point at which traffic managers and traffic management centres (TMCs) will have to gear up to cope with a rapidly-evolving road scenario. The TM 2.0 Platform (see box) is promoting a concept of new-generation traffic management (which carries the same TM 2.0 title) and is studying how future T
    Read More
  • Electronic vehicle registration ensures payment
    February 2, 2012
    Like most countries, Bermuda recognised that it was losing revenue through non-compliance with vehicle registration regulations and was equally concerned about vehicles that were not properly insured or put through annual inspections. Indeed, the tiny island state, with a population of around 65,000 people and some 30,000 vehicles, estimated it was losing more than US$1.4 million per year in tax-based revenue since approximately 8 per cent of vehicle owners were cheating the system.
    Read More
  • Europe's electronic toll service closer to operational reality
    November 7, 2012
    After much debate and delay, a unifying European Electronic Toll Service is now finally on the horizon, says ASFiNAG’s Klaus Schierhackl. Here, he talks with Jason Barnes about what that might mean. Aworkable European Electronic Toll Service (EETS) which will allow truck drivers to travel across the continent and pay tolls using a single account and OnBoard Unit (OBU) was originally timetabled to be in place and operating by October of this year. A lack of urgency from some of the stakeholders involved in t
    Read More
  • Cost benefit goes under the microscope
    August 21, 2017
    Conventional cost benefit analysis (CBA) of plans for urban smart mobility initiatives needs serious rethinking, according to a recently-completed European study. The three-year Evidence Project (the Project) emerged in response to concerns about the availability and quality of documented research – including CBA – required to prove that investment in sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMPs) can be economically beneficial. Covering 22 sectors ranging from electric vehicles to shared spaces, the Project clai
    Read More

Highlighted Content