Reforms of the German law governing charging points

Nine months after EU Regulation 2023/1804 on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure (AFIR) came into force, the national rules in Germany are now also being modified. On 20 December 2024, the German upper house of parliament (Bundesrat) approved the ordinance of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action’s reforming the law on charging points. This “amending ordinance” modifies statutes such as the existing German Charging Point Ordinance (Ladensäulenverordnung) and the requirements on the prices for charging vehicles in the German Price Information Ordinance (Preisangabenverordnung) to reflect the new European legislation, since the areas governed by the AFIR became inapplicable when the AFIR came into force due to the primacy of EU law. These now inapplicable rules (especially sections 2, 3 and 4 of the old version of the German Charging Point Ordinance) are repealed or amended by the amending ordinance. We provide an overview of the main new provisions and amendments below:

Modifications to the German Charging Point Ordinance

The German Charging Point Ordinance is being completely revised. It now contains above all provisions regarding responsibility and procedural specifications. The new section 5 of the Ordinance stipulates that the German Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) is able to monitor compliance with the specifications in the AFIR for charging points and to prosecute infringements where appropriate. This includes the requirement to make it possible for vehicles to be charged on an ad hoc basis (Article 5(1) AFIR), the requirements for automatic authentication (Article 5(2) AFIR), the requirements relating to digital connectivity of the recharging points (Article 5(7) AFIR) as well as their smart-charging capability (Article 5(8) AFIR) and the requirement that all direct current (DC) publicly accessible recharging points have a fixed recharging cable installed (Article 5(10) AFIR). The range of instruments available to the Federal Network Agency for this purpose (reviews, provision of evidence, retrofitting and operating bans) remains unchanged.

As before, operators (CPOs) must notify the Federal Network Agency on the commissioning and decommissioning of charging points and any operator changes in electronic form under the new section 4 of the German Charging Point Ordinance. This is essential to enable the Federal Network Agency to fully exercise its powers to control and to impose penalties under the German Charging Point Ordinance. It is also made clear that both the old and new operators of a charging point have to report the change in operators to the Federal Network Agency without undue delay in order to rule out that neither of them report to the Federal Network Agency if there is a change.

According to the new section 4(2) of the German Charging Point Ordinance, the CPO of a charging point has to provide evidence that the technical requirements set out under section 3 of the Ordinance, especially the requirements regarding the technical safety of energy installations under section 49(1) of the German Energy Industry Act (Energiewirtschaftsgesetz) are met when charging points are commissioned or during their operation only if requested to do so by the regulatory authority (and not in all cases, as up to now) by attaching appropriate documentation.

Amendments to the 38^th German Ordinance on Implementation of the Federal Immission Control Act

The references to the German Charging Point Ordinance contained in the German Ordinance Determining further Provisions to Reduce Greenhouse Gases in Fuels (Verordnung zur Festlegung weiterer Bestimmungen zur Treibhausgasminderung bei Kraftstoffen (38^th German Ordinance on Implementation of the Federal Immission Control Act (38. BImSchV)), which is part of the set of rules and regulations regarding the German greenhouse gas reduction quota (THG-Quote), are amended to comply with the new statutory provisions.

Amendments to the German Price Information Ordinance

Apart from adjustments to references and terms to match the AFIR, the amending ordinance above all transfers the provisions in Article 5(4) of the AFIR regarding the admissible price components for ad hoc charging at publicly accessible charging points with a power output of 50 kilowatts or more in the new section 14(3) of the German Price Information Ordinance to include existing fast charging points:

This means that operators of such charging points are only allowed to apply the price per kilowatt hour, and where applicable an occupancy fee if the charging point is occupied for a long time, calculated as a price per minute, when determining the price of the electricity supplied. This specification, which corresponds to subparagraph (1) of Article 5(4) of the AFIR, actually only applies to charging points installed after 13 April 2024. The memorandum to the ordinance states that the adoption of the provision for charging points put up before 13 April 2024 is intended to prevent distortions of competition between the providers of electric current for charging vehicles due to differing legal requirements for existing fast charging points and ones to be deployed in the future. It states that the requirement is also covered by the fundamental objectives of the AFIR regarding price transparency.

Unlike the charging points installed after 13 April 2024, the price may not just be shown at the charging stations; instead, the far broader possibilities for providing information on prices set out in section 14(3) of the old version of the German Price Information Ordinance are retained. These also include displaying prices on a free mobile website without registration or an option to access the information by using a mobile device which are pointed out on the charging point or in its immediate vicinity.

Lack of regulations on penalties for infringements of pricing rules

The amending ordinance does not contain any provisions regarding penalties for particular infringements of the general pricing rules: under Article 5(6) of the AFIR, the Member States have to ensure that their authorities monitor the recharging infrastructure market on a regular basis. This relates in particular to compliance with the specifications in Article 5(3) of the AFIR, which states that the prices charged by the CPO must be reasonable, easily and clearly comparable, transparent and non-discriminatory, and the requirements of Article 5(5) of the AFIR regarding the obligation to provide information on prices for contractual charging for eMSPs.

In order for such monitoring to be effective, it must be ensured that penalties can be imposed on infringements of the specifications regarding information on pricing and price components in the AFIR. The amending ordinance does not contain any provisions for enforcing this with penalties in the German Price Information Ordinance. Based on the regulators’ comments, the reason for this is that in order to enforce penalties in EU law at the level of a statutory instrument, a legal authorisation is required so that regulatory provisions on fines can be issued. Such an authorisation does not exist up to now.

Conclusion and outlook

The German law on charging stations and points has now largely been amended to reflect EU law. Despite this, penalties in relation to pricing requirements for for CPOs and eMSPs, which are highly relevant in practice, in particular remain unregulated. A new federal government will have to take action again to close this gap. The consistency between the specifications for pricing for all publicly accessible charging points with a power output of 50 kilowatts which has now been regulated is highly relevant in practice. Operators will have to adjust their pricing models in response to this.