Brussels, 04/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Justice permits the price of road haulage services to be lower than the operating costs. By providing that the price of these services may not be lower than minimum operating costs, Italian legislation infringes EU law.
In a judgment given on Thursday 4 September, the European Court of Justice ruled that the Italian legislation on the carriage of goods by road was ineffective because it provides that charges payable by customers may not be lower than the minimum operating costs, including the cost of fuel and the operating costs of the haulage company.
In Italy, the Osservatorio sulle attività di autotrasporto is authorised to fix the minimum costs in the event of no agreement being concluded between haulage associations and associations of customers of transport services. This was the case in 2011, and the Osservatorio adopted a series of tables in order to fix the minimum costs.
The situation has resulted in the Court deciding that, firstly, Italy seems to have infringed the European rules on prohibited agreements by promoting banned arrangements, as it has delegated to a private operator the responsibility of a decision of economic interest.
Furthermore, the Court finds that the Osservatorio should be considered as an association of undertakings that is subject to competition rules. By fixing minimum operating costs, undertakings are prevented from setting tariffs lower than those costs and thus from competing freely. The Court therefore criticises this issue and stipulates that the Italian legislation is likely to restrict competition on the single market.
Lastly, the Court criticises the objective of maintaining road safety - which is invoked by Italy in order to restrict competition. The Court is therefore firm in its conclusion that the Italian legislation is incompatible with EU law. (MD)