CTS Eventim Wins German Government Tender Process To Collect Passenger Vehicle Toll

The so-called PKW Maut, a passenger vehicle toll, is coming
Christian Ohde/McPhoto/ullstein bild via Getty Images – The so-called PKW Maut, a passenger vehicle toll, is coming
CTS Eventim is going to provide its expertise in handling large-scale digital transactions

A consortium of live entertainment giant CTS Eventim and transportation systems provider Kapsch TrafficCom won the bid by Germany’s federal government to collect a passenger vehicle toll.
The so-called infrastructure charge, which demands a certain fee from drivers using German roads, depending on the type of vehicle and road, had been debated for years, and was approved by parliament in 2017.
The next step was to find the providers that could come up with a technical solution for the toll. A call for tenders was issued by the German federal government, which CTS Eventim and Kapsch TrafficCom won.
The contract is worth almost €2 billion ($2.3 billion) over a minimum contract period of 12 to 15 years from the date the toll is finally introduced, which will be in 2021, if everything goes according to plan.
The operating company will be a joint venture between CTS EVENTIM and Kapsch TrafficCom, with each party holding 50 percent of shares.
Kapsch TrafficCom brings experience in the deployment and operation of toll collection systems to the table. CTS Eventim, one of Europe’s largest e-commerce companies, will contribute its expertise gained from the sale of over 250 million tickets per year, as well ashandling transactions across multiple countries, languages, and currencies.
CTS Eventim CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg thanked the federal government “for its confidence in our digital, customer-centred approach. At the same time, we greatly look forward to working with Kapsch TrafficCom to make this exciting project a success. We want to make the collection of the passenger vehicle toll as simple as possible for everyone.”
It marks the first time, CTS Eventim is deploying its technology outside the ticketing sector. 
By collecting the passenger vehicle toll, CTS Eventim will for the first time be making its expertise fully available for a purpose beyond the ticketing sector.
The company is Europe’s leading ticketing provider, a position it has acquired thanks to its digital-savvy products, which are driving the continent’s digital adaption.
“A key prerequisite for this is system-stable online solutions focused on the user experience – from targeted marketing on all relevant channels, state-of-the-art customer service and CRM solutions, through to secure payment processing,” a CTS Eventim statement reads.
Being able to prove its product with internationally tried and tested in transactions with hundreds of millions of ticket purchasers, will have influenced the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure’s decision to award the contract to the consortium of CTS Eventim and Kapsch TrafficCom.
In a separate tender process, Kapsch TrafficCom was already contracted several weeks ago as the sole operator of the passenger vehicle toll monitoring system.
André F. Laux, COO of Kapsch TrafficCom, said: “Germany’s network of highways is among the large and complex networks in Europe. This means that toll collection will naturally present challenges on many different levels. Our technical knowledge and extensive experience in operations and implementation coupled with CTS Eventim’s expertise in sales and payment processing, means we have all the essential.”
The contract can only be formally awarded to CTS Eventim and Kapsch TrafficCom once unsuccessful bidders have been informed of the outcome by Dec. 30, 2018, at the earliest. In the event that any of the unsuccessful bidders initiates valid objections to the award of contract, these must first be resolved.
The contract between the Federal Republic of Germany and the operating company commences with the binding awarding of the contract, and has a base term of twelve years from the start of the passenger vehicle toll collection, with an option of extending the contract once for a three-year period or three times for a one-year period, if the principal chooses to do so.
The German passenger vehicle toll is highly controversial, as German’s expect the costs for roads to be covered by existing taxes. The German government has promised tax cuts to its citizens to offset the costs, promising that the toll would only affect foreign drivers using German roads.
Revenues from the passenger vehicle toll are to be invested in the federal highway network.
Only a few days ago, Dec. 11, Austria and the Netherlands sued Germany at the European Court of Justice for levying the passenger vehicle toll. A decision 
The German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure is confident that the toll is in accordance with EU law, claiming the EU Commission has green-lighted the toll months-ago.
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