Prague Public Transport Company Seeks Lawyers to Enforce Fare Evasion Fines

The Prague Public Transport Company (DPP) is searching for lawyers to represent them in enforcing fines for fare evasion and in legal and enforcement proceedings. The company aims to select three law firms that will handle cases from pre-trial stages to enforcement proceedings.

The winners of the selection process will be announced by the end of this year. Annually, the company collects several million Czech korunas in fines for fare evasion. As the largest municipal company responsible for public transportation, DPP is crucial in operating the city’s public transport network.

DPP spokesperson Aneta Řehková stated that the selection process would be conducted with maximum openness and transparency. The goal is to encourage as many qualified law firms as possible to participate in the selection. In this tender, great emphasis will be placed on the communication between law firms and debtors.

DPP General Director Petr Witowski explained that the selected law firms would be required to establish accessible and functional communication channels for themselves and with enforcement agents. These channels should allow debtors to address specific inquiries regardless of the stage of debt collection.

The evaluation of the proposals will consider their economic advantages for DPP, particularly in terms of the fees for law firms during the pre-litigation stage of debt collection. Unlike the fees for the judicial and enforcement steps, the Ministry of Justice does not determine the costs for the pre-litigation location.

In 2021, DPP issued 7.3% more fines than the previous year, amounting to over 222 million Czech korunas. However, the data in the prior year has not yet been published. The fine for fare evasion in Prague is set at 1500 Czech korunas, which reduces to 1000 korunas if paid within 15 days. The penalty for forgetting to validate the MHD lítačka card is 50 korunas, while the annual pass costs 3650 korunas.