Changes from 2022

2022 will bring news for Via Verde users: there are services that will no longer exist and others will appear. There are even those who criticize the new price list, stressing that it is an “abuse”.
Nascer do SOL has tried to understand with Via Verde – a company owned by Prisa – what the major changes will be and how everything will work from 2022 onwards. First of all, Via Verde Leve, Via Verde Livre and annual rental routes will be discontinued, which will be transferred to other routes, such as Via Verde Autoestrada and Via Verde Mobilidade. Annual and monthly subscriptions.

In Nascer do SOL, a Via Verde spokesperson explained that the first method focuses “primarily on the electronic fee payment service”. In addition, if they so choose, customers will be able to activate other mobility services. Via Verde Autoestrada will cost 49 cents per month or 5.75 euros per year.

On the other hand, Via Verde Mobilidade corresponds to the new, more complete and wider range of mobility services offered by Via Verde. It will cost 99 cents per month or 11.50 euros per year. Here, there are many services such as electronic payment of tolls, replenishment at Galp gas stations, parking in parks or on the street, Troia-Setúbal or Setúbal-Troia ferries, Farma Drive, MC Drive. There is also Via Verde Electric, the service, through the Via Verde app, which allows users and customers to access any electric charging station on the Mobi network. And charge your electric cars.

Essentially, 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 for a fee. If they want access to other services, they will have to pay another 50 cents per month to Via Verde.

Starting in April next year, Via Verde will launch “more benefits, more benefits” on Via Verde Mobility, which has yet to be announced.

This method has another version called Via Verde Mobilidade Leve which is for occasional customers where the customer pays the monthly fee only in the months they use it. It will cost 1.25 euros per month.
But beware: “All these prices are in electronic form because it is cheaper than what the customer gets in paper form,” explains a Via Verde source.

There is more news. Between January 5, 2022 and March 2022, customers will be able to take advantage of a trial period. What does this mean? “During this period, there is no price increase for customers who have switched to the new methods. The trial period is for a person to realize, for a period of three months, the method that best suits his needs”, explains a source from Via Verde.

The new price list will only come into effect from April 1, 2022. But for an old Via Verde customer who signed up for a method that will be discontinued and converted to a new method, will the fee be charged on April 1, 2022? It depends on the billing cycle. “The rule is as follows: the new rates for new methods that come into effect on April 1, 2022 and are only valid for new Via Verde customers from April 1, 2022 or for old customers from the moment you renew your subscription. Take place after April 1, 2022”, the same source guarantees.

Thus, for a person who joins, for example, on February 1st the annual Via Verde Mobility program, he will be in the trial period, and therefore will pay 5.75 euros. But since you pay an annual premium, you will start paying only €11.50 from February 1, 2023.

Aware of the confusion created by this issue, the company explains: “The new methods as of January 5th apply only to customers, new customers or those who have been carried over in new transfers. Whoever bought the ID does not apply anything strictly. It will continue in using it under the same terms and conditions until you have to replace it.”

Also, starting in January next year, Via Verde will no longer sell IDs. The justification relates to the market trend of increasing subscriptions to digital services through subscriptions. A lifetime ID warranty is included with the subscription.

Via Verde also states that it has sent 1.3 million emails to customers who have joined Via Verde in one of the three subscription modes that will no longer exist, informing them that they will be switching to the new subscription modes, ensuring that these customers, for a period of three months, will not be There is an increase in prices.

The other side of the coin

Whoever was not satisfied with this change is Deco Proteste who actually came to say that “50% price increase is an abuse of exclusivity”.

Asked by Nascer do SOL whether these changes would cause any confusion to users, Tito Rodriguez, a lawyer at Deco Proteste, began by saying: “Let’s be clear and simplify the ‘simplification’ that Via Verde wanted to promote by restructuring its tariffs. ». That until today, everyone who rented Via Verde services had access to all the services that Via Verde provides – such as paying motorway tolls, parking and fuel pumps – and paying €0.99 per month, remembering that from the 5th of January” You will pay 50% more for the same set of services (ie you will pay 1.49 € per month). It is simply this.” “But for those who just want to pay the fee – an option that Via Verde Portugal admits is not the majority – Via Verde has now created a set tariff whose launch price (0.99 euros per month) is the previous one Via Verde inclusive.”

The lawyer also presents other examples and states that to date Via Verde has offered two main options: “Get the ID (at a unit cost of €32 or €26.50 for those who adhere to the electronic statement) or subscribe to a subscription with two tariff options – Via Verde Livre (paid monthly at a cost of 0.99). € per month) and Via Verde Leve (paid only in months of use at a cost of 1.20 / month) ». He understands that with this restructuring, “Via Verde increases the cost of its two subscriptions by 50% (now called Via Verde Mobilidade and Via Verde Mobilidade Leve), creates a subcategory that only allows access to fee payment (Via Verde Autoestrada) and removes the possibility to get ID” .

For Tito Rodriguez, “This latest decision will end up forcing all (nearly) 3 million users to sign up for a set of services, more or less complete, that not many want.” Thus, he argues, “It is economically understandable given that if the useful life of the identifier is 5-7 years, when comparing the cost of acquiring the equipment (€32 or 26.50 with an electronic statement) and dividing it by 6 years, we understand that the annual value (5.33 €/year or 4.41/year with an electronic disclosure) is clearly more beneficial than the proposal imposed now (which would always cost €17.88/year or 11.88/year with an electronic extract)».

But can Via Verde lose users? Tito Rodriguez has power: “The consumer opposition to the abuse of exclusivity is already beginning to be felt.” He ensures that Deco Protest has received thousands of calls from consumers “outraged by the commercial insensitivity of a brand operating in an alarmingly competitive position due to its lack of competitors”. Deco Protestant questioned the competition authority “in order to understand whether this authority maintains its understanding of 2010 when it did not oppose the merger of Via Verde Portugal with Brisa and Assendi, considering that at that time there were no undesirable anti-competitive effects, nor horizontal or vertically, with the aforementioned focus’.

He argues that “the company’s behavior, with such indifferent expressive increases, demonstrates that we may be in the presence of a real abuse of exclusivity and that European directive intended to ensure the interoperability of fee payment systems is inadequate.”