By Ruth Bender
PARIS--France's competition authority on Thursday called for
tighter regulation of the highway concession sector, in an attempt
to tackle the imbalance between costs charged to drivers and
profits generated by companies including Vinci SA (VCISY) and
Eiffage SA (FGR.FR).
In a recommendation published on Wednesday to a parliamentary
finance commission, the Autorité de la Concurrence criticized the
high profits concession companies make in relation to the costs
they have to put up.
According to the report, highway concession companies make
between 20 euros and 24 euros ($26-$31) of net profit on EUR100
paid by a highway user, an amount the antitrust watchdog calls
"unjustified" in relation to the risk of their activity.
Business units of Vinci and Eiffage are among France's largest
highway toll operators.
A spokesman for Vinci declined to comment on the report. No one
at Eiffage was immediately available for comment.
The competition authority said a new formula to calculate toll
fees should be put in place in order to limit the rise in fees, or
to even allow a drop in charges as part of a list of 13
recommendations on how to better regulate the highway concession
sector.
According to the competition authority, France's seven largest
highway concession companies make up 92% of the revenue generated
on France's near 12,000 kilometers of highways.
But in the same report, the competition authority underlined the
difficulty in changing regulation in the sector as highway
concessions between private operators and the French state run for
a very long period of time.
(Thomas Varela also contributed to this article.)
Write to Ruth Bender at ruth.bender@wsj.com
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