BEAT victory against Spirtzi law

The Transparency Authority accepted Beat’s memorandum, according to which, there was a full payment to drivers for the routes they took to those citizens who went for their vaccination, as well as the corporate social responsibility framework in which the action was included.

According to competent sources citing the relevant administrative document, the National Transparency Authority and in particular the Inspection and Control Unit of the Public Works and Transport sector, accepts the argument of BEAT, that it is a technology company that is part of the Information Society and not a urban transport service.

As a service provider, it considered it its duty to strengthen the vaccination campaign by ensuring the safe movement of vulnerable groups to vaccination centers. The action took place between March 21, 2021 and April 30, 2021, in which only 285 vaccination routes were carried out.

A similar action was provided by providing a discount to volunteer blood donors in order to safely go to vaccination centers in the urban tissue. Consequently, the action described above falls within the framework of Corporate Social Responsibility and is therefore not subject to scrutiny by the National Transparency Authority.

It is noted that the case was brought before the Transparency Authority after complaints against the CSR action of Beat based on law 4530/2018 (known as “Spirtzi law”) which prohibits offers and discounts to companies “electronic or telephone mediation of passenger transport by public vehicles use ”. Beat had reacted then by thinking that it was not an urban transport company, but a technology company. A reasoning that seems to have been accepted by the Authority.