The police suspect the German car-sharing company Miles Mobility to have defrauded Berlin of 25 to 30 million euros in parking fees by manipulating parking data since 2019. The company last year argued the Berlin government favored private cars.
Yesterday, the Berlin police announced having performed searches in the offices of a car-sharing company headquartered in Berlin.
The searches were conducted due to suspicion of fraud and falsification, since the State of Berlin found that this company has had many parking violations associated with their cars, avoiding an estimated 25 to 30 million euros (26,5 to 32 million dollars) in parking fees since 2019.
Tagesspiegel then reported the company in question is Miles Mobility GmbH (Ltd.), a Berlin-based car-sharing company. “We can confirm that a search took place on October 11, 2023, in which we cooperated fully and disclosed all requested data sets and documents to the investigating authorities,” a company spokeswoman told the German newspaper.
According to the Police report, the investigation is directed against two managing directors of the company. One is aged 36, which matches the age of Oliver Mackprang, the CEO and one of the three co-founders of the company.
Car-sharing companies allow people to use cars temporarily, which they pay for by minute or mile driven.
As part of the service provided by Miles Mobility, customers are able to park for free in public parking areas, including those managed by the Berlin government which incur extra fees.
Founded in 2016, the company, which also provides car rental services, claims to be the largest independent car-sharing company in Germany with more than 2 million users of their app and services across the 14 cities where it operates in Germany and Belgium.
The Berlin Police reported that Miles Mobility had an “exceptionally high number” of parking violations, suggesting the GPS data had been manipulated. They estimated that 25–30 million euros of parking fees had been avoided this way.
In an interview with Tagesspiegel in March 2022, Oliver Mackprang complained about the high parking fees for shared cars. He said that the “distribution of the burden” between privately owned cars and Miles’s shared cars was inappropriate given the impositions of the Berlin government.
Mr. Mackprang explained that Berlin clearly favored those who owned cars, as reserving a parking spot for residents is much cheaper than regular public parking in Berlin.
Berlin residents living in one of the 56 parking zones can park their cars in their areas for free except for the 20 euros (21 dollars) of administrative fees to pay every two years. Others need to pay 25 to 75 cents per 15 minutes, and 1 to 2 euros per hour.
If the company were to be convicted, Mackprang’s company would have defrauded the government out of millions at the time of giving the interview.
The police report said it had search warrants for six offices in total, including some businesses working with Miles: Three in Berlin, Germany, two in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and one in Vienna, Austria.
Miles Mobility and other car-sharing companies hire companies that automatically calculate the costs of parking using a mobile phone system: The duration of parking is recorded via mobile and the car sends GPS location information to calculate the cost.
One of Miles Mobility’s technological business partners, INVERS, is based in North Rhine-Westphalia. Miles Mobility utilizes the technological services of INVERS for their cars providing them with location information and status updates about their vehicles. Contacted by phone and email, INVERS didn’t answer Newsendip’s questions.
