Renfe wins a lawsuit against transporters regarding 2022 freight rates

MADRID, 12 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Provincial Court of Madrid has rejected an appeal filed by the International Road Transport Association (Astic) against a ruling that ruled in favor of Renfe for the change in its freight rates for 2022.

Renfe had already won in the first instance that June 2023 ruling issued by the Commercial Court number 17 of Madrid, which Astic appealed and which now the Provincial Court has confirmed, condemning the transporters association to pay the second-tier costs. instance.

The ruling completely agrees with Renfe Mercancías and reinforces the principle of freedom in establishing tariff conditions for the provision of Multiclient Intermodal Network (RIM) services in a liberalized market, as long as they are transparent and non-discriminatory.

In this way, the text concludes that Renfe Mercancías has not engaged in any conduct constituting abuse of a dominant position or any practice of unfair competition in the intermodal freight transport market.

Renfe explains that the modification of the tariff conditions was carried out to address the operating losses that said service caused to the company, since the tariffs had not been updated in more than ten years and had become obsolete due to the changes in operating conditions and the increase in operating costs in that period.

Astic argued that these new conditions imposed in 2022 - such as all containers being charged as loaded, the elimination of the 'empty container' rate or the increase in some cases of 68% in final net prices for outbound traffic in loaded and empty return-- they were going to reduce activity by 500.00 tons of merchandise in Spain.