EU may challenge German road toll law

The European Commission will consider a legal challenge against Germany over the new road toll law, according to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Critics argue that the toll discriminates against foreigners. The European Commission's President Jean-Claude Juncker said in an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung that the planned German road toll did not appear to conform to EU rules prohibiting discrimination against foreigners. "The Commission, the guardian of the EU treaties, now has to explore
June 2, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
The 1690 European Commission will consider a legal challenge against Germany over the new road toll law, according to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Critics argue that the toll discriminates against foreigners.

The European Commission's President Jean-Claude Juncker said in an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung that the planned German road toll did not appear to conform to EU rules prohibiting discrimination against foreigners.

"The Commission, the guardian of the EU treaties, now has to explore whether the treaties have been violated - if necessary at the European Court of Justice," Juncker said.

The toll, which Germany's parliament approved in March, will force foreign car drivers to pay up to 130 euros (US$143) a year for using the country's motorways.

German drivers would also pay the toll, but would receive a corresponding reduction in automobile taxes, which critics inside and outside the ruling grand coalition say contravenes EU rules.

Juncker's comments follow a report in Die Welt on Saturday that quoted Commission sources saying it planned to launch a legal challenge against Germany.
Urban Traffic Control Charging, Tolling & RUC

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Asecap: get ready to rethink everything you know
    November 15, 2022
    How can we make our infrastructure ready for new sustainability challenges? What kind of investments are needed? And who will finance them? Tolling association Asecap has some thoughts. Geoff Hadwick reports from Lisbon
    Read More
  • Road user charging comes a step closer in Oregon
    December 19, 2017
    Having been the first US state to introduce the gas tax a century ago, Oregon is now blazing the road user charging trail. Colin Sowman looks at progress to date. For more than a decade, authorities in Oregon have known of the impending decline in fuels tax income and while revenue increased by more than 5% in 2016, that growth will slow considerably this year and income is projected to start declining in 2020.
    Read More
  • Are road user charging systems too complicated?
    February 27, 2012
    At any conference or exhibition, it tends to be the ad libs and asides, the departures from the scripted or official lines, which are the most telling. In mid-February, ITS-UK's Road User Charging Interest Group met in London. The event was no exception to that statement. Keith Mortimer, the Group's chairman, and his colleagues put together one of the better programmes on charging and tolling that I've seen in recent years. Sadly, however, the very positive presentations on deployments and technological pro
    Read More
  • US economic stimulus package highlights ITS technology
    July 17, 2012
    US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood talks to ITS International about economic stimulus funding and the absolute need to maintain and increase the use of technology in transportation. Of the total of $787 billion of funding announced under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the economic stimulus package which was signed into law by US President Barack Obama on 17 February 2009, $48.1 billion will go to the US Department of Transportation (USDOT). Of that, $27.5 billion is for highway in
    Read More

Highlighted Content