2022 will bring news for Via Verde users: some services will cease to exist and others will appear. And there are even those who criticize the new price list, claiming that this is “abuse.”
Nascer do SOL tried to understand with Via Verde – a company owned by Brisa – what the major changes will be and how things will work from 2022. To begin with, Via Verde Leve, Via Verde Livre and the terms of the annual lease will be abolished, which will be converted to other ones, Via Verde Autoestrada and Via Verde Mobilidade. Both annual and monthly subscriptions.
At Nascer do SOL, a Via Verde spokesman explained that the first option is focused “mainly on the electronic toll service”. In addition, customers will be able to activate other mobile services if they wish. Via Verde Autoestrada will cost 49 cents per month or 5.75 euros per year.
Via Verde Mobilidade, on the other hand, is in line with the new, more complete and wider range of mobile services offered by Via Verde. It will cost 99 cents per month or 11.50 euros per year. And there are various services here such as electronic toll collection, delivery at Galp filling stations, parking in parks or on the street, Troia-Setúbal or Setúbal-Troia ferries, Farma Drive and MC Drive. There is also Via Verde Electric, a service via the Via Verde app that allows users and customers to access any charging station on the Mobi network. And charge your electric cars.
Basically, customers who choose the first mode will continue to pay the same amount they have paid so far, but they can only use the service to pay tolls. If they need access to other services, they will have to pay Via Verde an additional 50 cents a month.
And starting in April next year, Via Verde will introduce “more benefits and more benefits” for Via Verde Mobility, which have not yet been announced.
This method has another version, called Via Verde Mobilidade Leve, and is for casual customers where the customer only pays a monthly fee for the months they use it. It will cost € 1.25 per month.
But be careful: “All of these prices are in electronic format because they are cheaper than what the buyer receives on paper,” explains a source on Via Verde.
There is more news. From January 5, 2022 to March 2022, customers will be able to take advantage of the trial period. What does it mean? “During this period, prices for customers who have switched to the new conditions do not increase. A person is given a probationary period of three months to find out which method best suits their needs, ”explains a source on Via Verde.
The new price list will only come into force on April 1, 2022. But for an old Via Verde customer who has subscribed to one of the modalities to be discontinued and converted to the new modality, what will be charged on April 1st: 2022? It depends on the billing cycle. “The rule is that the new prices of the new conditions, which will take effect from April 1, 2022, and apply only to new Via Verde customers from April 1, 2022, or to old customers from the date of your renewal. will take place after April 1, 2022, ”the same source guarantees.
Thus, for a person who joins the annual Via Verde Mobility on February 1, for example, he will be in a trial period and will therefore pay 5.75 euros. But since you are paying an annuity, only from February 1, 2023 you will start paying 11.50 euros.
Aware of the confusion created around this issue, the company explains: “The new terms effective January 5th apply only to customers, new or those who have been transitioned to new transformations. Whoever bought the ID strictly enforces nothing. You will continue to use it on the same terms until you have to replace it. ”
Also, starting in January next year, Via Verde will no longer sell identifiers. The rationale relates to the market trend towards an increase in the number of digital service subscriptions through subscriptions. Lifetime ID warranty included with subscription.
Via Verde also recalls that it has sent 1.3 million emails to customers who have joined Via Verde in one of three subscription modes that will no longer exist, informing them that they will be converted to new subscription modes, guaranteeing that customers that within three months, there will be no price increase.
but on the other hand
Who was dissatisfied with this change was Deco Proteste, who already said that “a 50% price increase is an abuse of exclusive rights.”
Asked by Nascer do SOL if these changes would confuse users, Tito Rodriguez, a lawyer at Deco Proteste, first said: “Let’s clarify and simplify the ‘simplification’ that Via Verde wanted to promote through the restructuring of its tariff. “. And he explains that until today, whoever hired Via Verde had access to all the services that Via Verde provides, such as paying tolls, parking lots and fuel pumps, and paid € 0.99 a month, remembering that from January 5 “you will pay 50% more for the same set of services (that is, you will pay 1.49 euros per month). This is simple “. And he adds: “But for those who just want to pay the fare – an option that, according to Via Verde Portugal itself, is not the majority – Via Verde has created a special tariff, the starting price of which (0.99 € / month) is the previous one. the price. Via Verde all inclusive.
The lawyer also gives other examples and recalls that until today Via Verde offered two main options: “Obtaining an identifier (unit cost € 32 or € 26.50 for those who adhere to the electronic application) or subscription to a subscription with two tariff options – Via Verde Livre (billed every month at € 0.99 per month) and Via Verde Leve (billed only for months of use at € 1.20 per month) ”. And realizes that with this restructuring “Via Verde is increasing the cost of its two subscriptions by 50% (now called Via Verde Mobilidade and Via Verde Mobilidade Leve), creates a subcategory that gives access only to toll payments (Via Verde Autoestrada). and excludes the possibility of obtaining an identifier “.
According to Tito Rodriguez, “this latest decision will force all (almost) 3 million users to subscribe to a more or less complete set of services that many do not want.” And so he argues that “it is economically understandable given that if the useful life of an identifier varies from 5 to 7 years, when we understand that the annual cost (€ 5.33 / year or 4.41 / year with electronic statement) is clearly more advantageous than the current offer (which will always cost € 17.88 / year or 11.88 / year with electronic statement) “.
But can Via Verde lose users? Tito Rodriguez is authoritative: “Consumer resistance to this abuse of exclusivity is already being felt.” And he ensures that Deco Proteste has received thousands of contacts from consumers “unhappy with this commercial insensitivity of a brand that is operating in an alarmingly competitive situation, given that it has no competitors.” Deco Proteste asked the Competition Authority “to understand if this body maintains its understanding of 2010 when it did not oppose the merger of Via Verde Portugal with Brisa and Ascendi, given that there were no unwanted anti-competitive effects at the time, neither horizontally, nor vertically, with the indicated concentration. “
And he argues that “the behavior of a company with such indifferently expressive growth makes it clear that we may face a real abuse of exclusivity and that the European Directive aimed at ensuring interoperability of toll systems is not enough.”
