Cashback Autostrade, how consumer reimbursement will work
Autostrade per l'Italia (Aspi) sanctioned by the Antitrust for non-compliance with tolls, green light for automatic reimbursement. All the details of the provision of the Guarantor and the comment of Tomasi (Aspi)
Green light for automatic refunds from Autostrade for construction site delays.
The Competition and Market Authority (Agcm) has concluded the non-compliance procedure initiated against Autostrade per l'Italia spa (Aspi) for not having followed up the warning that required it to terminate the incorrect practice already ascertained by resolution of March 2021. This was announced by the authority chaired by Roberto Rustichelli with a note .
Last March, the Antitrust Authority fined Autostrade per l'Italia with a 5 million euro fine for unfair commercial practice for failing to reduce tolls on sections with construction sites. After that, the authority had initiated proceedings because, after the sanction, the company led by Roberto Tomasi had not adopted any measures to reduce the toll.
Today the Agcm approved the commitments presented by Aspi, thus giving free reimbursements through the cashback system launched by the company and already operational since May 1st.
From now on, the right to obtain reimbursements between 25% and 100% of the toll will be recognized depending on the mileage band traveled and the accumulated delay time due to inefficiencies generated by work sites.
Furthermore, “to give maximum diffusion to the Cashback system, Aspi will use an articulated communication plan, exploiting various channels” reads the note.
All the details.
THE PROCEDURE STARTED BY THE AGCM
As the note explains, last July the Agcm had initiated the procedure "since the company had not adopted any measures that contemplated a reduction in the toll – or in any case a procedure that envisaged the activation of toll reduction mechanisms – in cases of serious inconvenience to the usability of the motorway service, attributable to ASPI, and consisting of lane reductions and / or specific limitations of the maximum speed allowed with consequent queues, slowdowns and significant increase in travel times ".
THE ASPI CASHBACK PROGRAM
Immediately after the start of the procedure, Aspi presented an experimental program for the progressive reimbursement of the toll, called Cashback.
The latter “has been the subject of analysis, in-depth analysis and multiple comparisons both with Aspi and with the Ministry of Sustainable Infrastructures and Mobility”, the Authority for competition and the market said. "In light of the critical issues that emerged, the Cashback program was modified and perfected with a view to creating a mechanism that was able to proportionally and adequately compensate consumers / users for the inconvenience suffered".
HOW THE REFUND FROM HIGHWAYS WILL WORK FROM NOW ON
Therefore Aspi has undertaken to accept the disputes and implement the suggested changes.
The modified Cashback program will allow "a wide audience of users who will accrue the right to obtain reimbursements ranging from 25% to 100% of the toll depending on the mileage traveled and the delay accumulated due to the inefficiencies generated by the work sites . In particular, already within the month of May, reimbursements are provided for delays starting from 10 minutes for journeys up to 99 km and at least 15 minutes for all other bands (up to over 500 km), calculated taking speed as a reference. historical average which for light vehicles is equal to 100 km / h, while for heavy vehicles it is equal to 70 km / h ".
THE METHOD OF DISPENSING THE REFUND OF MOTORWAYS
"Even the methods of disbursement of the reimbursement, the process of which is managed through a special application called Free to X – which can be downloaded free of charge by users – and, in the future, also through a specific section of the Aspi website, have been modified and perfected by the company during the procedure ", underlines the Agcm.
The approval and disbursement of the reimbursement will take place automatically – even in the event of minimal delay – depending on the toll payment method used by the customer (electronic toll and / or cards or cash).
THE PECUNARY SANCTION
Finally, the proceedings ended with a minimal fine. As the Agcm note explains, "Considering the effort of Aspi connected to the introduction of Cashback as well as the complexity and innovativeness of the proposed interventions, partly already implemented and which constitute an unprecedented initiative in the European transport services panorama on the road, the Antitrust has decided to apply a pecuniary sanction to Aspi equal to the minimum legal sanction in the event of non-compliance (10,000 euros) ".
THE POSITION OF TOMASI
The green light of the Antitrust to Aspi on cashback "We are pleased because it denotes a measure of attention to users" commented Aspi CEO Roberto Tomasi this morning in Genoa for a conference on infrastructures. “There is much higher potential in cashback – said Tomasi – and obviously Liguria is the gym for verifying our ability to be close to our users who, every day, we understand that they make large transport components. We must also understand how important the need to modernize the most complex region at national level is ”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/cashback-autostrade-come-funzionera-il-rimborso-dei-consumatori/ on Fri, 20 May 2022 13:04:52 +0000.