{"id":5085,"date":"2023-01-27T11:39:27","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T10:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.btsasociados.com\/?p=5085"},"modified":"2023-01-27T11:47:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T10:47:45","slug":"dgts-points-recovery-system-could-be-illegal-says-the-ecj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.btsasociados.com\/en\/dgts-points-recovery-system-could-be-illegal-says-the-ecj\/","title":{"rendered":"DGT’s points recovery system could be illegal, says the ECJ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU<\/strong>) has ruled in a judgment that the method used by the DGT<\/strong> to distribute road safety awareness and re-education courses<\/strong> to those who wish to recover their driving licence points is contrary to EU law and could be illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CJEU ruling comes in response to a preliminary ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court <\/strong>on an appeal in cassation brought by the General State Administration and the National Confederation of Driving Schools (CNAE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014, the DGT announced a call for tenders for the courses to be followed by drivers in order to recover the points on their driving licences lost as a result of traffic offences. The contract that was the object of this tender was configured as a public service concession. For these purposes, the entire national territory<\/strong>, except:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Catalonia.<\/li>
  2. Basque Country.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    It was therefore divided into five zones<\/strong>, each of which corresponded to one of the five tender lots. At the end of the procedure, the successful tenderer for each of the lots was the only entity entitled to provide those road safety awareness and re-education courses in the relevant geographical area.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This system was challenged by the Association for the Defence of the Common Interests of Driving Schools<\/strong> before the Central Administrative Court for Contractual Appeals, claiming that the award of those road safety awareness and re-education courses by means of public service concession contracts was contrary to the freedom to provide services. Their appeal was dismissed and they appealed to the National Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Audiencia Nacional<\/strong> annulled the decision issued by the Central Administrative Court for Contractual Appeals and the disputed tender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Appeal to the Supreme Court<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    The administration and the Confederaci\u00f3n Nacional de Autoescuelas, the body which had participated in the tendering procedure, appealed against that judgment to the Tribunal Supremo (Spain’s Supreme Court). The High Court had doubts as to whether or not the award at issue was compatible with Directive 2006\/123.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In its judgment, the CJEU points out that, in accordance with the legislation at issue, only one concessionaire is authorised to provide these road safety awareness and re-education courses in each of the five geographical areas previously defined.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As regards the necessity of the rule<\/strong>, the CJEU states that the measure adopted by the Spanish authorities “is designed to improve road safety by facilitating access to training centres for drivers who have lost points on their driving licences” and reflects “an overriding reason relating to the public interest which may justify restrictions on the freedom of establishment”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On the other hand, it asserts that it is possible that “a division of the territory into a larger number of geographical <\/strong>areas than the five fixed would help to facilitate the provision of the services in question in less attractive areas”, so that “the territorial division and the quantitative limit imposed do not appear necessary” for the courses to be economically viable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you have any doubts about this issue, please do not hesitate to contact us by telephone at N\u00faria Mart\u00ed Garc\u00eda or by e-mail at nmg@btsasociados.com<\/a>, we will be delighted to help you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled in a judgment that the method used by the DGT to distribute road safety…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btsasociados.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btsasociados.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btsasociados.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btsasociados.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btsasociados.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.btsasociados.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.btsasociados.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.btsasociados.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}