Ruling: Federal government must also partially repay truck toll for 2016 to 2020
The mistake of including traffic police costs in toll tariffs continues to fall on the federal government's shoulders. Reimbursement: around 1 billion euros.
The truck toll for the police was levied unjustifiably.
New legal setback for the federal government in the ongoing dispute over the amount of the truck toll. The Cologne Administrative Court (VG) has now ruled in a so-called test case that the responsible Federal Office for Logistics and Mobility (BALM) also calculated the toll incorrectly in the period from October 1, 2015 to October 27, 2020. The corresponding collection of the toll was therefore unlawful, the judges declared. They justified this by stating that the authority had included the costs for the traffic police in the calculation of the toll rates.
In autumn 2020, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that only infrastructure costs may be considered when setting tolls, i.e. the costs of building, operating, maintaining and expanding the relevant transport network. Police activities are therefore the responsibility of the state. The case was brought by a Polish haulage company. The ECJ ruling related to the period from January 1, 2010, to July 18, 2011. The BALM refused to apply this decision to subsequent years. The Cologne Administrative Court did not accept this. In its opinion, the relevant EU directives on transport infrastructure costs are comparable.
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The plaintiff itself applied to the Federal Republic of Germany - represented by the BALM - for reimbursement of the truck toll paid in the amount of the share of traffic police costs plus interest "only" for the period from January 1, 2016, to October 27, 2020. The Cologne Administrative Court upheld this in its ruling on Wednesday (case no.: 14 K 6556/20). The judges justified this by stating that the considerations of the ECJ and the Higher Administrative Court in MĂĽnster for the period 2010 to 2011 were "fully transferable" to the new period of action. Moreover, even the calculation of the traffic police costs was flawed, as it also included money "for the performance of other tasks".
Claims for repayment of all toll fees still outstanding
The court found that the share of traffic police costs in the period from October 1, 2015, to December 31, 2018, was 5.86% and 4.44% between the beginning of 2019 and October 27, 2020. BALM must therefore initially pay the plaintiff haulage company 20,200 euros plus interest, according to Carsten Vyvers from the law firm Arnecke, Sibeth, Dabelstein. The plaintiff's lawyer, Martin PfnĂĽr, assumes a potential total reimbursement volume of up to 1 billion euros, as there are also around 38,000 relevant applications from other freight forwarders. However, it is still unclear how many transport companies' refund claims are already time-barred. Ultimately, the taxpayer would have to pay for the refunds.
The Cologne Administrative Court did not allow a direct appeal. However, the parties involved can apply for permission to appeal to the second instance, which would be decided by the Higher Administrative Court in MĂĽnster. The ruling is not yet legally binding. Other lawsuits are also pending before the Cologne Administrative Court in which freight forwarders are not only claiming their share of the traffic police costs, but also the full reimbursement of tolls paid for different periods. The judges see a need for further discussion here and have therefore transferred the relevant issues to separate proceedings (case no.: 14 K 626/23). A decision date has not yet been set.
(vbr)
