The fight of Dutch fast-charger company Fastned and Tesla with its Superchargers against the charging station monopoly for Tank & Rast, owning 95% of all fuel stations along German highways, is moving to a higher level; the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

Both companies were challenging the decision of the German Federal Anti-Cartel Office, which sees no objection to the monopoly within the current concession agreement, before the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf. The latter suspended the trial to get advice from Europe’s highest court on how far this concession agreement reached.

Extending existing agreement

Tank & Rast operates around 400 ‘Raststätten’ and 50 hotels in Germany with 12 000 employees. For Tank & Rast and the German highway manager Autobahn GmbH, it is obvious the agreement for the fuel stations dating back to the nineties, which only talks about regular gas stations, can be expanded to charging infrastructure – something the EU Commission acknowledged in May 2022.

But Fastned and Tesla claim it is unfair to allow a monopoly without other market payers having the chance to compete in a public tender. They say charging EVs is an entirely different business than filling up ICE cars with fuel. The revenue model, for instance, is different, with prices for subscribers and non-subscribers and many charging suppliers not offering fossil fuels.

EU Court to clarify

Tesla and Fastned failed in the first instance to make their point at the lower court in Germany and appealed to the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf. Now this court wants the EU Court in Luxembourg to clarify first whether a concession that was initially awarded between public sectors and afterward was transferred to a private company, needs to offer a public tender.

The latter will undoubtedly mean a loss of time, according to Fastned, in expanding the German charging infrastructure. Fastned already has 37 fast-charging stations operational in Germany, but not on the highways itself. Fastned now says it hopes German authorities and Autobahn GmbH will see the error of their ways and allow competition to benefit the user.