We received from a female Reader a report concerning “illegal fare schedules for tickets on county public-service routes organized by Bolesławiec County from 2019 to the present”.

The person submitting the report justified it as follows:

Under the law, ticket fare schedules in county passenger transport constitute an act of local law because they concern an unspecified number of people—passengers—and impose payment obligations, penalties, and so on. They must be published in the Official Journal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in accordance with the law. Since 2019, Bolesławiec County has not adopted a resolution or submitted one for publication, which means that the ticket fare schedules are illegal and that fees from passengers on public-service routes are being collected without a legal basis, under a legally nonexistent “act of local law”.

The Reader added: – Therefore, passengers using county passenger transport on routes organized by Bolesławiec County—who can prove that they used transport organized by Bolesławiec County, for example by purchasing named monthly tickets—have the right to demand a refund of all money paid for purchased tickets, as well as all fees on those routes and penalties paid, together with the interest due.

She referred to the Supervisory Ruling of the Lower Silesian Voivode of 4 November 2020, the Supreme Administrative Court judgment of 19 July 2005 and the judgment of the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Rzeszów of 23 May 2023.

We asked Bolesławiec County about the matter. The office said:

(…) in accordance with the wording of Article 50a(2) of the Act of 16 December 2010 on Public Collective Transport (consolidated text: Journal of Laws of 2025, item 285, as amended), the county council may set prices for transport services in public collective transport within the scope of a public-service task in county passenger transport. It should be emphasized that Article 50a of the Act on Public Collective Transport indicates the possibility, rather than the obligation, to set prices for transport services. Case law has established that this provision gives the relevant body—the county council—the right to set prices for transport services in public collective transport, but does not impose such an obligation on it.

It explains:

This structure therefore means that the relevant body may exercise its authority flexibly when shaping pricing policy for transport services. On this basis, an act of local law may be issued that is legally binding on all entities providing the services referred to in the cited provision in a given area, namely operators. Where services for the organizer—Bolesławiec County—are provided by a single operator, PKS sp. z o.o., setting prices for transport services by the council is pointless. It should also be emphasized that the bodies listed in Article 50a of the Act on Public Collective Transport are not authorized to set prices for commercial transport.

It adds:

It should also be noted that case law emphasizes that fare schedules or transport tariffs cannot be adopted on the basis of Article 50a of the Act on Public Collective Transport. The legislature’s use of the phrase “price for transport services” means a specific amount for a specified service. Setting fees for transport services is different: under Article 50b of the Act on Public Collective Transport, such fees are maximum prices. This differs from setting transport fare tariffs (fare schedules), meaning the prices of specific tickets, whether single, discounted or period tickets, such as monthly tickets. This, like determining eligibility for discounted travel in public-service transport, falls within the competence of the organizer of public collective transport, which, in the case of county passenger transport, is the starosta (Article 15(1)(10) of the Act on Public Collective Transport). Accordingly, the Bolesławiec Starosta, carrying out the organizer’s duties pursuant to Article 7(4)(4) of the Act on Public Collective Transport, issued an order under Article 15(1)(10) concerning the tariff of fees for the transport of passengers and luggage in county passenger transport.