Trouble because of replacement toll

Penalty despite vignette: “This is a rip-off!”

More than 400,000 drivers receive mail from ASFINAG every year because they have been caught without a vignette. It doesn't matter why they don't have one.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/zVg Patrick Huber)

After moving house, a driver from Lower Austria forgot to transfer the digital vignette to the new license plate. The Kremser had to pay a fine despite having proof of his move. The trouble is great.

Changing address and electricity, forwarding orders and taking out new insurance - there are a lot of things to consider when moving house. You think about many of them right away, some of them later - and some of them only when it's too late. That's what happened to Peter G.. The 59-year-old moved from Purkersdorf to Krems. 

Not re-registered
Because he moved to another district in 2023, he also had to re-register his car. What was forgotten: The digital vignette remained registered on the old license plate. A short time later, the neo-Kremser received a letter from ASFINAG. It demanded a replacement toll of 120 euros. 

G. did not want to pay the bill at the time. "I had bought the vignette legally and was able to prove that the car had been properly deregistered and re-registered," he explains. So he hired a lawyer. Recently, however, he came to the bitter realization at the administrative court in St. Pölten: G. has to pay! 

We are still trying to find a legal loophole. The current system is simply not fair. A small sentence in the replacement toll claim would be enough. After all, I bought the vignette.

Peter G.

"A small note would be enough"
"It's a rip-off," he says angrily. "ASFINAG could add a note saying that you can submit everything within a week if you move. That would be customer-friendly and wouldn't put me on an equal footing with someone who deliberately drives without a vignette," adds the 59-year-old. The fact that he had to pay an additional 18 euros for the subsequent re-registration did not make things any better for him. 

Excerpt from the toll regulations

1.9.1 Criminal liability for toll evasion
It is prohibited to use the toll road network with motor vehicles subject to tolls within the meaning of these Tolling Regulations without having a valid toll sticker properly affixed and properly carried in accordance with Section 2.2.2 of the Tolling Regulations Part A I or without having properly registered the vehicle registration number in the toll system. Drivers who violate this prohibition commit an administrative offense pursuant to Section 20 (1) BStMG and are subject to a fine of EUR 300.00 to EUR 3,000.00 imposed by the district administrative authority.

1.9.2 Failure to punish
No penalty will be imposed if a substitute toll - as described below - is paid. A substitute toll duly paid in accordance with Section 19 BStMG cannot be reclaimed.

"We adhere to the toll regulations"
However, as division manager Stefan Zangerle emphasizes, ASFINAG acts strictly in accordance with the toll regulations laid down by politicians: "These only differentiate whether someone has a vignette or not. We have no insight into whether customers have simply forgotten to re-register," says Zangerle. However, the toll regulations were at least recently changed to the extent that in G.'s situation you only have to pay once, even if you have been caught several times.

48 million euros in revenue
A side note: ASFINAG registers more than 400,000 vignette offenses per year. 48 million euros are collected in this way. "With more than 28 million vignettes, this is a very small number," emphasizes the company. In addition, 1967 corrections were made to one license plate last year. "However, this also includes the corrections where the customer reported before the journey, i.e. no replacement toll was incurred," says ASFINAG. With over 4.3 million annual car vignettes, this is also a very small number.