At that time still in office as Federal Minister of Transport, Andreas Scheuer observes repair work on a motorway here in October 2021.
Image: dpa
The failed car toll is costing the German state dearly. Lawyer and court costs alone cost the government millions, according to “Zeit Online”. A judgment on the damages of the commissioned companies is still pending.
Dhe failed car toll will probably cost the German state significantly more than previously assumed. As “Zeit Online” reports, the federal government had to pay legal and court costs of 21.5 million euros by the end of March. The medium learned this from a request from the left-wing member of the Bundestag Victor Perli.
According to this, around 20 million euros were attributable to the legal and legal costs for two proceedings that are pending before a private arbitral tribunal. A further around 1.5 million euros were paid for proceedings at administrative courts, in particular for defending against applications under the Freedom of Information Act.
It is still unclear how much money taxpayers will ultimately have to pay for the failed project. The two groups Kapsch TrafficCom and CTS Eventim founded the joint venture autoTicket GmbH for the car toll. In June 2019, the car toll – a CSU prestige project – was then stopped by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) as illegal.
The intended operators demanded 560 million euros in damages after the federal government terminated the contracts after the verdict. In March of this year, an arbitration panel confirmed that the two companies were “in principle” entitled to damages. The amount has yet to be decided.
