{"id":12588,"date":"2026-05-28T12:11:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=12588"},"modified":"2026-05-28T12:11:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:11:54","slug":"e-vignette-price-can-be-higher-if-purchased-from-unauthorized-dealer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/e-vignette-price-can-be-higher-if-purchased-from-unauthorized-dealer\/","title":{"rendered":"E-Vignette Price Can Be Higher if Purchased From Unauthorized Dealer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Original article<\/a> (in Slovenian) was published on 28\/5\/2026; Author: Ana Mi\u0107ovi\u0107<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Ministry of Infrastructure clarified that the sale of e-vignettes by intermediaries at a higher price is not necessarily banned, provided that the consumer is clearly informed of the additional costs and that the activity is conducted legally.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The website Elektronskavinjeta<\/em> charged \u20ac134.99 for an annual e-vignette for cars on 20 May this year. On the same day, an e-vignette for the same vehicle class was available in the official online store of Slovenian motorway operator DARS for \u20ac117.50, which is \u20ac17.49 less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

E-vignettes are how motorway toll is charged in Slovenia and many other European countries, and the website bills itself as an “independent service that registers e-vignettes with other official toll authorities.” It also states<\/a> that it operates as an official sales partner of Nemzeti Mobilfizet\u00e9si for the Hungarian e-vignette system. Roadwise Group, a company registered in the Netherlands, is listed as the owner of the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DARS explained to Razkrinkavanje.si<\/em> that there are several unofficial online providers that sell e-vignettes for various countries, including for Slovenian motorways and expressways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they warned, such providers charge customers a commission, typically issuing an invoice for the e-vignette at the official price and a separate invoice for the high commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, “the buyer has no guarantee that the e-vignette was actually created in our central system. Despite making the payment, they may still end up without a valid e-vignette. This means that upon entering the Slovenian motorway network, they could be committing an offense and face a fine, even though they paid for the e-vignette.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DARS confirmed that they “do not cooperate commercially or contractually with any such intermediaries.” They also explained that they have “already warned most of these providers to cease the unauthorized sale of Slovenian e-vignettes and the charging of additional commissions.” DARS cannot help customers in the event there are any issues or additional costs arising from purchasing e-vignettes from unofficial providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help prevent or at least restrict sales by unauthorized providers, they also approached Google but have so far been unsuccessful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to DARS’s explanation, the official online stores e-vignettes are Petrol, the Austrian Asfinag, and the German ADAC, while all other providers sell Slovenian e-vignettes without authorization. Drivers can also purchase the vignette from authorized retailers at physical points of sale<\/a>, at DarsGo service points in Ljubljana, Maribor, and Hru\u0161ica, as well as the Ferneti\u010di, Gru\u0161kovje, and Obre\u017eje border crossings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They noted that drivers can check the validity of an e-vignette in several ways, most simply via DARS’s official e-vignette website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intermediate sale of e-vignettes permitted in principle<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Ministry of Infrastructure explained to Razkrinkavanje.si<\/em> that the toll road operator \u2013 DARS \u2013 is responsible for the sale of e-vignettes. They said that DARS sells e-vignettes “within its own sales network as well as through contractual partners.” Since the Ministry does not monitor the sales network, it is unaware of the existence of the Elektronskavinjeta<\/em> website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, they explained that they are aware of cases abroad where the price of e-vignettes was higher when purchased from intermediaries. “DARS must pay a service fee to its contractual partners through whom it sells electronic vignettes, but it does not pass this cost onto the final consumer.” In these cases, the consumer therefore always pays the listing price as determined in the government decree<\/a> on toll roads and toll fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ministry believes “that the intermediary sale of e-vignettes at a higher price is not necessarily inadmissible as such, provided that the consumer is clearly and transparently informed of all additional costs and that the service is legal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They pointed out, however, that toll legislation does not provide for mechanisms or sanctions in cases “where private intermediaries sell electronic vignettes at a price higher than that set by the government.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They further explained that “such business practices are subject to market legislation and oversight by market supervisory authorities” and that no measures are planned to regulate the intermediary sale of e-vignettes more clearly, such as protecting consumers from misleading advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Market Inspectorate explained that the obligation to pay tolls, the method of determining the toll amount, the method of tolling, oversight of toll payments, and similar measures are dealt with in the Tolling Act, not by regulations within the inspectorate’s jurisdiction. “In view of the above, the purchase of an e-vignette does not constitute the conclusion of a contract under the Consumer Protection Act, and consequently, the Market Inspectorate cannot assess potential violations of this Act in such matters.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Slovenian Consumers’ Association explained that such websites exist for all countries with online e-vignette sales: “European Union representatives will tell you that competition must be encouraged and that there is nothing wrong with this.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They warned that as long as the vignette is valid, “it is merely deception in the form of an unnecessary commission.” However, if a consumer purchases an invalid e-vignette, it constitutes fraud, which would then have to be dealt with by the police or other competent authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a consumer purchases such a vignette and receives a fine, “they must appeal to the seller who issued the e-vignette, not to DARS or another national motorway operator, and report the matter to the police,” they advised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day after we sent a request for comment to the e-mail address listed under the contacts on the website, we received notification that the message could not be delivered, but that the system would attempt to resend it. There is no other option to establish contact with the website or its administrators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The claim that an annual e-vignette for passenger vehicles costs \u20ac134.99 is rated as a grey zone, as it is only partially true. A driver will only pay this price if they purchase the vignette from an unauthorized retailer. The official price, which is determined by law, is lower.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original article (in Slovenian) was published on 28\/5\/2026; Author: Ana Mi\u0107ovi\u0107 The Ministry of Infrastructure clarified that the sale of e-vignettes by intermediaries at a higher price is not necessarily banned, provided that the consumer is clearly informed of the additional costs and that the activity is conducted legally. The website Elektronskavinjeta charged \u20ac134.99 for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12589,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[769,770,34],"class_list":["post-12588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-checks","tag-e-vignette","tag-motorway","tag-slovenia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12590,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12588\/revisions\/12590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}