Court finds Avic's action against Viana do Castelo as unfounded

O Administrative and Fiscal Court of Braga judged “totally unfounded” the action filed by the Avic group against the House of Viana do Castelo, concerning compensation for Public Service Obligations (OSP) transport, announced today the municipality.

Until 2023, the amount of compensation for PSO was EUR 250 per day, up to 150 kilometres covered.

In 2024, the proposal of the House of Viana do Castelo was EUR 285 per day for 125 kilometres and was rejected by the carrier claiming an additional compensation of EUR 268,573,54, plus interest on late payment, also claimed by the company, on the provision of public transport services between 2021 and 2024.

The impasse led, in June 2024, the company António dos Prazeres da Silva & Filho, Lda, a society for quotas that is part of the Avic group, to decide to suspend the public passenger transport service (SPTP) in eight careers of urban and interurban public transport, as well as at several times on several lines, for generating “biletics revenue of only 86.20 euros per day per car, insufficient value to cover even the costs of the driver”.

The company invoked “the variation in fuel, personnel and other costs”.

The judgment of the Administrative and Tax Court (TAF) of Braga, of 23 October, and to which the agency Lusa had access today, judged “the action totally unfounded and, consequently, acquitted” the House of Viana do Castelo.

The “company has not been entitled to receive values higher than those provided for in the protocols concluded with the municipality for those years, as required”.

The court “gives relevance to the protocols signed with the municipality, considering that the legislation on public transport service did not in itself confer on the operator the right to require additional values to those that had been agreed”.

According to the court, the company “acts in abuse of law, by claiming values higher than the protocols it voluntarily subscribed to”.

“ The 2020 reference value was proposed by the Author herself, and it has never demonstrated, with accounting elements, that the compensation was loss or that the costs incurred were due to the fulfilment of the public service obligations”, reads in the 33 page judgment.

As for the opinions then issued by the AMT – Mobility and Transport Authority (AMT) the court considers that “they did not bind the municipality of Viana do Castelo to the payment of the amounts required”.

“ The AMT reports are limited to concluding that there is no overcompensation, which is not equivalent to the existence of loss compensation”, the court says.

For the municipality, the “decision today known considers that it was not demonstrated the violation of a legal duty that forced the municipality to review the agreed compensations, determining totally unfounded the company’s action, acquitting the Municipality”.

The court points out that “the compensation due to the company for fulfilling the public service obligations related to the Braga – Viana do Castelo career, in the years 2021 to 2024, is the result of the protocols concluded with the municipality, which it paid for”.

“ Neither the law, nor the protocols, nor AMT’s pronunciations give the company the right to receive from the authority the difference between the operating expenses plus reasonable profit and the income obtained. And there are no assumptions of non-contractual civil liability or enrichment without cause (...). The demonstration of the amounts of expenditure, income and deficit claimed by the company would in no way alter the solution, which confirms the lack of necessary evidence,” the document reads.

The court has given the company responsibility for the procedural costs.