Rail traffic: According to the court, rail does not have to keep any capacity free for competition

The Cologne Administrative Court has made a ruling in favor of Deutsche Bahn in competition with other providers. In a press release, the court announced that a mandatory competition clause, as decided by the Federal Network Agency, is unlawful. The decision cannot be appealed.

The background to the legal dispute is the plans of the Italian provider Italo to use trains in Germany and thus compete with Deutsche Bahn. The Federal Network Agency had decided in favor of Italo that Deutsche Bahn had to release at least a quarter of the capacity to other providers on heavily used routes. The administrative court in Cologne has now reversed this decision.

Federal Network Agency regrets judgment

The court justified its decision by saying that neither European nor German law provides for “an obligation for railway operators to include a competition clause in their terms of use”. There is no legal basis for such a clause from the Federal Network Agency, a court spokesman told ZEIT.

Deutsche Bahn wrote that the ruling provided clarity. “This is also good given the very limited capacity on the German rail network,” said a press release.

The Federal Network Agency told ZEIT that it still considers the prevented competition clause to be useful "in order to promote competition on the rails in the interests of passengers." However, according to the Cologne court ruling, the network timetable for 2028 will be drawn up without a corresponding clause.

Italo told ZEIT that the company had taken note of the ruling. “We are sticking to our goal of entering the German long-distance transport market,” wrote Italo. The company has already invested in a new train fleet and is still planning to launch on the German market in 2028.

Italo demands planning security

So far, long-distance transport in Germany has been dominated by Deutsche Bahn. In principle, it is possible for other companies such as Italo or FlixTrain to offer long-distance transport connections. The federally owned infrastructure company DB InfraGo creates the network timetables from year to year.