Frontal 21: Marco Núñez on EU state aid law in German car toll-case

On 26 January 2021, Frontal 21, the investigative news magazine which airs on German TV Channel ZDF, under the title “Minister Clueless” (“Minister Ahnungslos”), reported on the Federal Minister of Transport Scheuer’s “toll debacle”. In December 2018, the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) had signed an operator contract with the autoTicket consortium for the collection of the infrastructure charge (so-called German passenger car toll). However, after in June 2019 the ECJ declared parts of the infrastructure charge to be in violation of European law, the BMVI promptly terminated the operator contract. Now autoTicket is claiming high damages due to the early termination.

Now, for the first time the public attention is directed to the EU state aid law assessment of the compensation rules stipulated in the operator contract. Frontal 21 interviewed our partner Dr. Marco Núñez, a proven expert in EU state aid law, on the preconditions of a violation of EU state aid law and the possible consequences for contractual damage claims of the operator. In connection with the German car toll, Marco Núñez had already testified as an expert before the Car Toll Investigative Committee of the German Bundestag (our report).

The video (in German) is available here: Link