Success for the Public Transport Company: The District Court Dismissed RENCAR’s Lawsuit Against DPP

The District Court for Prague 9 has reached another key verdict in the legal dispute concerning the determination of the validity of the lease agreement for advertising space between RENCAR, part of the JCDecaux group, and the Prague Public Transit Company (DPP), represented by our law firm. The courts had previously definitively dismissed the claim regarding the validity of the agreement. Now, the district court also rejected the part of RENCAR’s claim seeking a determination that a valid contractual relationship exists between RENCAR and DPP. At the same time, DPP was awarded the right to reimbursement of legal costs.

The District Court for Prague 9 concluded that even after RENCAR clarified this part of the claim, the lawsuit could not be decided because RENCAR failed, despite repeated requests, to comply with the content of the appellate court’s objection. Thus, the District Court for Prague 9 once again confirmed the decision on the invalidity of the contract, which it had already ruled on in the previous judgment in September 2019. This ruling was also confirmed by the Municipal Court in Prague on appeal last September.

“I am glad that the courts ruled in favor of DPP on all points of the lawsuit, thereby confirming DPP’s analysis that the contract with RENCAR is invalid. The court’s decision comes despite all the media pressure, lies, and manipulation from RENCAR. At the same time, I am pleased that during the dispute we succeeded in securing new tenants for part of the advertising spaces, generating annual revenues for DPP exceeding CZK 150 million. The income we received from RENCAR for a much larger number of utilized spaces did not even reach a third of that amount,” says Petr Witowski, Chairman of the Board and CEO of DPP.

“The decision by the District Court for Prague 9 to reject the claim seeking a determination of whether a valid contractual relationship exists between DPP and RENCAR is a logical outcome. The court confirmed that it is actually unclear what RENCAR is seeking with the lawsuit. Even RENCAR itself is unable to define what kind of relationship allegedly exists between DPP and RENCAR,” comments Roman Kyral from the law firm CÍSAŘ, ČEŠKA, SMUTNÝ, which represents DPP in the dispute with RENCAR.

The District Court for Prague 9 also awarded DPP the right to reimbursement of legal costs amounting to CZK 141,328, which RENCAR and EUROPLAKAT, as an intervening party, must pay jointly and severally.

With this latest verdict from the District Court for Prague 9, the courts have sided with DPP on all points of the lawsuit concerning the validity of the advertising space lease agreement. The contract from 1997 concerns the exclusive right of RENCAR to operate advertising in public transport, covering approximately 130,000 advertising spaces in total. Originally, the contract was to be valid until 2031. The validity of the contract has been disputed between DPP and RENCAR since 2016. DPP considers the contract completely invalid.