SkyToll files official complaint over extended contract with Kapsch

SkyToll has filed a complaint with the the Czech competition watchdog, the Office for the Protection of Economic Competition, over the Transport Ministry’s decision to prolong the motorway toll collection contract with the Austrian company Kapsch without holding a competitive tender. Although the contract with Kapsch was deemed disadvantageous, the ministry failed to prepare the ground to end the country’s dependency on the firm and, earlier this year, extended the contract for fear that a fall-out in the tolling system would mean the country would be overrun by trucks. The decision came under fire both from coalition and opposition deputies who warned that the government was laying itself open to arbitration procedures from rival companies.