Tesla is suing a large gas station operator?!

For the right to erect charging stations along the Autobahn, Tesla is suing Tank & Rast, a sizable gas station owner in Germany.

Due to its ownership of the concession for nearly all of Germany’s Autobahn rest areas and associated filling stations, Tank & Rast is in a position of practically complete monopoly.

Prior to being privatized in 1998, the business was formerly held by the government, and as a result of its continued tight ties to the institution, it now enjoys a near monopoly.

The business has now asserted that it has a monopoly on electric vehicle charging stations along the Autobahn.

It has some deployed, but it still maintains full control over where they are placed and how they are used. It also has discretion over which businesses can install charging stations at its rest areas, and thus far it has only let EnBW, MER, Ionity, and Eon-Innogy to do so.

Tesla and Fastned, a Dutch charging station provider, have made the decision to file a lawsuit in an effort to break the monopoly and set up stations along the German Autobahn.

Starting Thursday, the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court will be hearing whether the federal government will extend the Tank & Rast monopoly at motorway service stations to include fast charging.

Tesla and Fastned contend that since charging stations are a wholly unrelated industry to gas stations, Tank & Rast’s monopoly on gas stations is unnecessary.

Fastned said that it provides the business an excessive amount of control because they get to select whether or not a certain spot along the roadways will get a charging station.

Although a decision is not anticipated to be made today, negotiations are anticipated to begin.