AFIR has produced plenty of guidance, consultations and competing interpretations since it entered into force. In October it got something new: a German court ruling with damages attached. The Regional Court of Munich I found that a CPO cannot charge eMSPs more than it charges its own app customers, and awarded damages going back to April 2024.
The January deadlines are also coming into focus. The ISO 15118-20 compliance guidance is out for Member State consultation, and an OCPI extension that maps AFIR’s data requirements has been published. Germany’s MiSpeL rule, the draft we covered in August, is now final.
On the funding side, we look at four US opportunities, including the CALeVIP fast-charging window we flagged in July, which is now open for applications.
Regulatory developments
Munich court rules against discriminatory B2B charging prices
On 6 October, the Regional Court of Munich I (Landgericht München I) issued a judgment (Case No. 33 O 2062/25) in a dispute between the eMSP Digital Charging Solutions (DCS) and the CPO EWE Go. It is the first German court ruling we know of to interpret AFIR’s non-discrimination clause, Article 5(3), on the merits. The clause prohibits CPOs from discriminating between end users and eMSPs, or between eMSPs, through pricing, unless the differentiation is proportionate and objectively justified.
At the same charge points, EWE Go charged DCS and other eMSPs an “Offer2All” wholesale price of €0.837/kWh for roaming access. Its ad hoc price was €0.79/kWh, and its own app customers paid €0.52/kWh.
The court made three findings. First, the benchmark for non-discrimination includes the CPO’s direct customer rate as well as its ad hoc price, which rejects the narrower reading some market participants had applied, so EWE Go may not charge DCS more than the €0.52/kWh it charges its own app customers. Second, the justifications EWE Go put forward (administrative costs, customer support, business risk and a loyalty rationale) did not justify a markup of roughly 60%, or €0.317/kWh, over the direct customer rate. Third, a blocking fee (idle fee) of €0.10 per minute that EWE Go applied to eMSP sessions only, and waived for ad hoc and app customers at the same stations, was also unlawful.
The court found EWE Go liable for damages to DCS for harm incurred since AFIR began to apply on 13 April 2024. The amount is still to be quantified and could run into millions of euros. The judgment is not yet legally binding and remains subject to appeal.
What the Munich ruling means for CPOs and eMSPs
- Compare the price you charge eMSPs, site by site, with your own app tariff as well as your ad hoc price; the court used the app tariff as the benchmark
- If you charge eMSPs a markup, document the cost behind it; administrative cost, support, risk and loyalty arguments did not carry a 60% markup here
- Apply blocking fees to app, ad hoc and roaming sessions alike; a fee that applied to eMSP sessions only was found unlawful
- Model your exposure on eMSP volumes since 13 April 2024, the date AFIR began to apply
- If you are an eMSP, compare your partner CPOs’ B2B prices with their published app tariffs and raise any differential in your next contract review, bearing in mind that the judgment is German and not yet final
ISO 15118-20 compliance guidance goes to Member States
Since its launch in September 2026, the European Commission’s Sustainable Transport Forum (STF) ad hoc working group on ISO 15118-20 compliance, which we reported on in September, has been developing Q&A guidance ahead of the AFIR mandate taking effect on 1 January 2027. Its output is structured into two documents: one on the legal interpretation of the relevant AFIR requirements, the other on technical and practical implementation.
Drafts of both went to Member States for consultation on 21 October, with feedback expected through early November. A revised version goes before the STF Plenary on 25 November for discussion and potential adoption. After that, the Commission is expected to consider folding relevant elements into a future Commission Notice.
Until the guidance is adopted, plan for the strictest reading of the 1 January 2027 requirement and adjust if the guidance lands more generously. AMPECO takes part in this working group; the November Policy Corner will carry the Plenary’s decision.
OCPI NAP Extension v1.0 arrives as the CEAP deadline approaches
On 25 September, NAPCORE, the coordination body for Europe’s National Access Points (NAPs), held its second Workshop on Alternative Fuels Data with the European Commission, the EVRoaming Foundation, FIER/EAFO, Google and others, to assess how AFIR’s Article 20 data requirements are being implemented ahead of the 31 December 2026 deadline for the Common European Access Point (CEAP). The headline outcome for CPOs is the OCPI NAP Extension v1.0, released by the EVRoaming Foundation on 24 September. It maps every AFIR data requirement under Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/655 (static, additional static and dynamic data) onto OCPI 2.3.0 and 3.0. In practice, CPOs keep communicating in OCPI while the NAPs handle the conversion to DATEX II, the European standard for exchanging traffic and travel data.
To close the gaps between OCPI and AFIR, the extension adds new fields, including the operator’s legal name, the location’s NUTS-1 region, payment brands, on-site services and new capability values for bidirectional charging and non-card ad hoc payment. It also makes many optional OCPI fields mandatory, such as help phone, opening times, energy mix, tariff linkage on the connector and the vehicle dimension fields for parking. OCPI 3.0, whose four-tier model aligns one to one with AFIR, needs far fewer additions. A conformance test tool commissioned by the Dutch Ministry and a fee-based certification will follow. OCPI 2.3.0 is also being formalized as a CEN/CENELEC Technical Specification, targeted for November or December 2026, after which it becomes mandatable through AFIR delegated acts; OCPI 3.0 targets a full CENELEC standard in the second half of 2027.
The workshop also showed how much work remains. The CEAP will be a discovery gateway on EAFO pointing to national endpoints rather than a central database, with pilots running in the Netherlands and Austria, and 20 NAPs have submitted intake forms. Yet of 44 countries Google researched, only 11 publish real-time availability data on their NAPs, and only two publish in OCPI. According to ACE Auto Club Europa, ad hoc price transparency sits at roughly 5% coverage under distributed NAP models such as Germany’s, against more than 95% under aggregated models such as Austria’s.
AMPECO’s regulatory team is mapping the newly mandatory fields and the CEAP onboarding timeline against the platform’s OCPI implementation and NAP integrations.
What the OCPI NAP Extension means for CPO data reporting
- Audit your location and tariff data for the fields that become mandatory: help phone, opening times, energy mix, tariff linkage and vehicle dimensions for parking
- Plan how you will collect the new fields for every location: legal name, NUTS-1 region, payment brands, on-site services and the new capability values
- Ask your CPMS provider and roaming partners when they will support OCPI 2.3.0 with the NAP extension; if you still run OCPI 2.2.1, this is a version upgrade as well as a data exercise
- Conformance testing and certification will expose gaps, so fix the data before the test does
The Commission proposes a new regulation to speed up standardization
On 6 October, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a new Regulation on European standardization (COM(2026) 780) to replace Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012. It introduces binding deadlines for the standards the Commission requests from CEN, CENELEC and ETSI, lets other standards bodies take on urgent or specialized work, and allows interim deliverables to support conformity assessment while full standards are finalized. The Commission estimates this would cut average development time from six years to four. Harmonized standards referenced in EU law would become freely accessible, codifying recent CJEU case law, and a new Expert Centre on European Standardisation would coordinate the EU’s position in international standards bodies.
For EV charging, the interim deliverables mechanism could speed up conformity pathways for the ISO 15118, MCS and V2G standards under development at CEN/CENELEC TC69, where harmonized standards lag behind deployment. Free access would also remove a cost barrier to compliance planning, particularly in smaller markets.
Germany’s MiSpeL rule is now final
On 1 October, Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur, BNetzA) issued its final decision on MiSpeL (Marktintegration von Speichern und Ladepunkten), the rule on how storage systems and charging points that mix grid and renewable electricity keep their subsidy under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). We covered the draft in August. It replaces the previous exclusivity option (Ausschließlichkeitsoption), which excluded charging points entirely, with two options that, for the first time, make charging points eligible for EEG subsidy on the same terms as stationary storage.
Under the delineation option (Abgrenzungsoption), the subsidy-eligible share of re-injected electricity is determined by quarter-hourly netting, and it is open to all users. The flat-rate option (Pauschaloption) is a simplified, low-metering alternative limited to solar installations up to 30 kWp, and it still awaits State aid clearance. A transition period runs until the end of September 2027, during which both options require the consent of the grid operator and the metering point operator. The full decision is on the Bundesnetzagentur’s site. AMPECO’s regulatory team is tracking what it means for how bidirectional charging points are classified, and for our German-market and ISO 15118 compliance work.
The UK’s “driveway divide” widens as home electricity VAT drops to zero
The VAT cut on household electricity we reported in July took effect on 1 October, the first policy announcement of Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government. Home charging is now at 0% VAT, while public charging stays at 20%. ChargeUK puts the VAT-related cost gap at around £200 a year for a typical driver, and the total gap exceeds £1,000 for drivers who rely solely on public charging. An estimated 10 million UK households cannot charge at home.
ChargeUK has coordinated an open letter to the Prime Minister, signed by 18 organizations including the AA, Autotrader, EVA England, FairCharge, IONITY and AMPECO, calling for the rates to be equalized. The letter points to Charge My Street Limited v HMRC [2026] UKFTT 318 (TC), in which the First-tier Tax Tribunal ruled that electricity supplied at public charge points qualifies for the reduced VAT rate rather than 20%. HMRC is appealing, and ChargeUK is urging the government to drop the appeal, noting that accepting the ruling would require minimal legislative change.
Funding and incentive updates
Four US programs opened or announced funding in October, with deadlines running from 13 November to mid-January.
Arizona opens Phase 3 NEVI RFP for 49 locations
On 2 October, the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) released RFP MEV0401X under its National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, seeking developers to design, build, operate and maintain charging at 49 locations statewide. This is Phase 3 of Arizona’s NEVI build-out; Phases 1 and 2 awarded 52 stations, so the total reaches 79 once Phase 3 is awarded. Arizona’s $76.5 million NEVI allocation funds projects at up to 80% federal with a minimum 20% private match and no state funds. Proposals are due 15 January 2027 at 2:00 PM MST through ADOT’s online platform, and registration is required to participate.
Colorado opens Fall 2026 DCFC Plazas round
The Colorado Energy Office’s DCFC Plazas round opened on 28 September and closes on 13 November 2026 at 5:00 PM MT. Funding combines the federal NEVI program and Colorado’s state-level Community Access Enterprise. Per-port incentives range from $75,000 in the seven-county Denver Metro Area (up to 50% of costs) and $100,000 for Front Range urban sites (65%) to $125,000 for rural locations and $175,000 for priority locations (both up to 80%). Every site needs at least four ports of 150 kW or more. Battery storage earns an additional $25,000 per site for battery-integrated systems or $45,000 for standalone storage, with a minimum of 90 kWh.
CALeVIP Fast Charge Window 2 is now open
The Fast Charge California Project Window 2 (FCCP-2) opened on 7 October 2026 and accepts applications until 14 January 2027 at 5:00 PM PT. Funded by the California Energy Commission and administered by the Center for Sustainable Energy, it is part of a $55.2 million allocation across two funding windows for publicly accessible DC fast charging statewide.
Incentives cover up to 100% of eligible project costs, capped at $100,000 per port for chargers of 275 kW and above, and at $55,000 per port for 150 to 274.99 kW. Funding is first-come, first-served, and applicants must show they are ready to build, with an issued permit and final utility service design at the time of submission. A third window is expected to open in February 2027.
Communities in Charge announces $27 million for multifamily charging
Communities in Charge, the CEC-funded Level 1 and Level 2 program run by CALSTART (now rebranding as Catalyst Mobility), expects to launch Funding Wave 5 in the first half of 2027 with around $27 million focused on apartments, condos and related sites. Previous waves have funded more than 7,400 Level 2 ports statewide, with base incentives of up to $8,500 per Level 2 connector and $2,000 per smart Level 1 outlet, and enhanced rates for tribal, low-income and disadvantaged communities.
AMPECO is recognized as a network provider across state-level US EV infrastructure programs, including California’s CALeVIP and New York’s NYSERDA Charge Ready 2.0, where its open, hardware-agnostic platform qualifies for funding support. AMPECO is also listed by EVCAN and EPRI as an approved provider for over 20 utility programs nationwide, including Duke Energy, Xcel Energy and SMUD; the two vetted product lists open access to nearly $2 billion in public incentives. Clients on the platform enter these programs with a pre-qualified software stack. All open programs are listed in AMPECO’s incentive tracker.
Looking ahead
Most of what reached the sector this year has been guidance, and guidance can still be debated. A court ruling with damages attached is different, because it puts a price on getting the interpretation wrong. The CEAP and ISO 15118-20 deadlines fall on 31 December and 1 January, and the compliance guidance is not yet adopted. CPOs and eMSPs are already bound by AFIR in full. Munich shows that liability runs from April 2024, whether or not the guidance has caught up.
If the Munich judgment stands, CPOs pricing eMSP access above their own app tariff carry exposure back to April 2024. Schedule a consultation with AMPECO’s regulatory intelligence team to review your tariff structure and your January compliance plan.
