Expansion of around 360 concessions

Fastned catches wind at European Court: new tender not needed for German motorway charging stations

Het Europese Hof in Luxemburg.

The European court has ruled that existing petrol station concessions along German motorways may be extended to include electric vehicle charging points under certain conditions, without the need for a new tender, the European Court of Justice has ruled.

Fastned, which brought the case against Autobahn GmbH, was hoping for a new tender so that it could operate charging stations at locations along the motorway. The case revolves around the extension of some 360 motorway service station concessions awarded to Tank & Rast in the 1990s. These concessions were recently extended with the right to also operate charging stations. Fastned, which itself offers charging stations in Germany, argued that such an extension should have been put out to European tender.

German court

According to the ECJ, it is possible to amend a concession contract without a new tender if three conditions are met: the amendment must be necessary due to unforeseen circumstances, must not substantially change the nature of the concession and the value of the amendment must not increase by more than 50 per cent. This also applies to concessions originally awarded to a public company without a tender, even if that company has since been privatised.

The German court in Düsseldorf had referred questions to the European Court of Justice. Although Fastned hoped the court in Luxembourg would declare the concession extension invalid, it did not. However, the Düsseldorf court must now review whether the conditions were met in this particular case.

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This article was automatically translated from the Dutch language original to English (British).

Author: Sander van Vliet

Source: MobilityEnergy.com

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