Fastned, which builds charging stations for electric cars, allows it to open stores at its highway stations. The judge decided this earlier this week. The government refused to grant the company permission to these stores, but the court in The Hague summoned them again.
Petrol stations already have stores where they sell, among other things, food, drinks, and car accessories. Fastned wants it too and has been involved in lawsuits about this for years, because the company doesn’t receive any permits. Now the court in The Hague has decided that the state must issue the permits.
The business revolves around three locations, but Fastned wants to open stores in many others. The company now owns more than a hundred stations along the national highways in the Netherlands. Not all of them will have a store. “We only build one where enough customers come,” a company spokesperson said. The range will mainly consist of food and beverages. There should also be seats and toilets.
Regular gas station operators along the highway are not happy with the arrival of more shops. VPR, an association that advocates for the interests of self-employed entrepreneurs and has a service station for highways, believes the ruling applies only to the three locations that were the subject of the lawsuit. According to VPR, that doesn’t mean Fastned is allowed to build stores everywhere.
It is not known whether the government will resume.
