Deutsche Bahn and OBB have their appeal upheld by the Administrative Tribunal of Piemonte

The Administrative Tribunal of Piemonte has upheld the appeal lodged by Deutsche Bahn Italia (Deutsche Bahn) S.r.l. and Öbb-Personenverkehr Aktiengesellschaft (OBB) against the decision of the Italian Transport Regulation Authority (Autorità di Regolazione dei Trasporti – ART) to raise wholesale fees for international train services. Lear assisted Deutsche Bahn and OBB during proceedings before the Tribunal and developed analyses showing that ART’s decision was not well grounded in economics, as wholesale fees were determined overlooking demand elasticity and electing instead to consider operators’ ability to pay, thus significantly departing from international best practices in the field of rail regulation. On this basis, the Tribunal instructed ART to redetermine wholesale fees. Deutsche Bahn and OBB were assisted by Freshfields and CBA respectively.