Bratislava transport company sold financial claims worth €7 million

The city transport company sold unpaid fines worth more than seven million euros to a private company for €106,000.

Illustrative stock photoIllustrative stock photo (Source: Sme - Jozef Jakubčo)

More than €120,000 of unpaid fines and a debt amounting to €7.2 million were caused by about a hundred thousand fare-dodgers using Bratislava city transport. The Transport Company Bratislava (DPB) was unable to reclaim this money, so after a public tender, the Platiť Sa Oplatí (It Is Beneficial to Pay) company started reclaiming them.

SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement
SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement

Reporter for the Sme daily, Adam Valček, pointed this out in his blog. In 2016, he got a fine of €70 for forgetting his tram pass and failing to show it later to DPB officials. At last, he decided not to pay the fine. Gradually, his debt rose to €148.26, as legal charges were included in the amount. Once before, Valček was delivered a payment county court judgment but he filed an appeal. The court still has not decided on the matter.

SkryťTurn off ads

“Recently, several thousand people received an unmarked envelope containing three letters from the Platiť Sa Oplatí company,“ Valček writes. The firm primarily focusing on reclaiming debts is demanding repayment of one of the debts while threatening distrainment. The letter uses various layout elements, bold and red letters as well as different font sizes. At first sight, the letter makes a frightening impression.

Unfair practices

In the reminder letter, the biggest font is used for the “Only by paying (…), you can avoid a proposal for distrainment implementation”. Thus, at first sight the letter may imply that if anyone does not pay their debt, they can count on a visit from the distrainor. However, this is not true as a distrainor can only act based on a payment county court judgment which can only be issued by a court.

SkryťTurn off ads

The company defended itself by claiming that the very existence of a claim is not conditioned on previous court rulings. “No law prevents anyone from reclaiming even claims not decided upon by court; and our company has been reclaiming thousands of such claims out of court,” CEO of the company, Ján Žemlička, wrote.

The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.sk
Subscribe now for full access

I already have subscription - Sign in

Subscription provides you with:
  • Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk
  • Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail)
  • PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper, The Slovak Spectator, emailed directly to you
  • Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk

Top stories

Janka, a blogger, during the inauguration of the first flight to Athens with Aegean Airlines at the airport in Bratislava on September 14, 2023.

A Czech rail operator connects Prague and Ukraine, Dominika Cibulková endorses Pellegrini, and Bratislava events.


Píšem or pišám?

"Do ľava," (to the left) I yelled, "Nie, do prava" (no, to the right), I gasped. "Dolšie," I screamed. "Nie, nie, horšie..." My Slovak girlfriend collapsed in laughter. Was it something I said?


Matthew J. Reynolds
Czech biochemist Jan Konvalinka.

Jan Konvalinka was expecting a pandemic before Covid-19 came along.


SkryťClose ad