The costs for the traffic police may not be included in the calculation of the HGV toll. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg decided on Wednesday and thus approved a Polish forwarding company.

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This had filed a lawsuit in Germany for the repayment of tolls. The Higher Administrative Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in Münster had asked the ECJ for clarification (Case C – 321 / 19). The case is now going back to Münster, the exact consequences are still unclear.

The shipping company had to use the German federal highways for the period from January 1st 2010 until 18. July 2011 Tolls totaling 12. 420, 53 Euro paid. The shipping company argued that the method by which the tolls were calculated was contrary to EU law and led to an excessive financial obligation.

“Exclusively infrastructure costs” The ECJ ruled that when setting the tolls, only the infrastructure costs should be taken into account, i.e. the expenditure for the construction, operation, maintenance and expansion of the relevant traffic route network. “Police activities are the responsibility of the state, which exercises sovereign powers and does not just act as the operator of the road infrastructure,” ruled the highest European judges. The costs of the traffic police could therefore not be regarded as operating costs within the meaning of the Directive on the collection of fees.

According to the ECJ, the infrastructure costs were only reduced by 3.8 because the traffic police were factored in Percent exceeded. The judges found that the guideline precludes any exceeding of infrastructure costs by incurring costs. They also rejected Germany’s request to limit the effect of the judgment in time.

With its judgment, the ECJ remained in line with the advocate general. In its opinion in June, the ECJ expert found that it was against EU law if the costs for the traffic police were also included in the toll.

The truck toll was 2005 introduced on the federal highways and meanwhile