Munich couple forces the train to its knees

Created: 06/12/2022, 09:00

By: Dirk Walter

Daniel K. was labeled as a fare dodger – wrongly, as it now turns out.

Photo: Private © Private

They were labeled as fare dodgers – wrongly so.

For a year, a couple from Munich fought their way through all instances and have now been proven right.

A little story about bringing an anonymous corporation to its knees.

Munich – David against Goliath – or Daniel against Deutsche Bahn.

That's how you could describe the tough struggle for a subsequent fare collection.

The starting point is more than a year ago.

In September 2021, the married couple Sophie and Daniel K. were traveling from Munich-Obermenzing to Starnberg and bought a group day ticket for 15 euros.

For reasons that were never clarified, they received a ticket for zone 1 from the bus driver. However, zones 1 and 2 would have been necessary for the journey to Starnberg.

Curiously, this did not affect the fare - because both tickets cost 15 euros at the time.

But the inspector on the regional train, in which the couple was traveling from Munich-Pasing to Starnberg, showed no mercy.

He pressed the day-trippers twice the maximum additional fare levy on the eye - a total of 120 euros.

A year ago, our newspaper reported on the case for the first time.

Now Daniel K. has got in touch – and tells how it went on.

Although the arbitration board for public transport (SÖP) had suggested reducing the penalty to a rather symbolic 30 euros, the group initially insisted on 120 euros.

The case was even assigned to a collection agency to collect the money.

"After consulting a lawyer, however, we were quite sure that if necessary we would take the case to court," reports Daniel K. Again and again, Deutsche Bahn followed up after the lawyer had been involved, sometimes with "threatening letters", sometimes with offers of a settlement.

A point of contention remains

The couple showed strong nerves and were not impressed by the incoming letters.

However, the railway shied away from a formal warning notice.

Because then K. would have tried to go to court.

His lawyer was absolutely certain that he would win the case, since the alleged fare dodgers would not have taken any advantage of their mistake - in legal jargon: there was no "intention to appropriation".

At some point, someone at the railway seems to have recognized this.

Because: “A few weeks ago, out of nowhere, the news came that the case was closed.

Without payment on our part," reports Daniel K.

The only point of contention now is data protection.

The K. couple insist that they be removed from the train fare dodger file.

It really does exist: DB Sales' "subsequent fare collection" department in Baden-Baden stores all the data of fare evaders for one year. In the event of a repeat offense, the period is extended by a further year.

Because DB Sales is based in Frankfurt, you can lodge an objection with the Hessian data protection officer.

That's exactly what the couple did.

There is a good chance that they will be right here as well.