Stibbe advises Belgacom, T-Systems International GmbH, Strabag AG and Efkon AG

Matter
BE Law

Stibbe assisted a consortium composed of Belgacom, T-Systems International GmbH, Strabag AG, and Efkon AG with the preparation of its eventually-successful bid and with the negotiations and subsequent closing of the contract for the realization of the Electronic Toll Collection System (ETCS) PPP project in the three Belgian regions.

The areas of law involved are: administrative law (incl. public procurement), IT, IP, privacy, corporate, project finance, tax, and so on.

This project required expertise from various practice groups. As the road charging system entails the processing of a vast quantity of personal data because of, e.g., GPS-based positioning and GPRS (text messages) communications between cars and gantries, we also advised the consortium on the data protection aspects of this project. In addition, this is the most significant technology PPP project in Belgium this decade, and it is also an important pilot project for road charging within the EU.

Moreover, EU rules on road charging are key to this project. This Belgian road charging project needs to comply with European rules on electronic road charging (e.g. Directive 1999/62/EC, Directive 2004/52/EC, and Directive 2010/40/EU).