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BRUSSELS, April 30 (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom AG and DaimlerChrysler AG's joint venture for an electronic road toll system in Germany won conditional approval on Wednesday from the European Commission.
Under a contract with the German government, a satellite-based system made by the companies will use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to record the time and distance of truck trips in Germany.
Trucks weighing more than 12 tonnes will have to pay road tolls of about 15 cents per kilometre.
The Commission said it was troubled that equipment would be used by the companies for a second purpose -- to compete in an emerging market which allows companies to keep track of their trucks and stay in touch with them. It also allows others to watch traffic flow.
The Commission said it feared "the transaction would lead to a dominant position of DaimlerChrysler" in that market.
In part, that is because the devices are to be provided free to truck operators. That would have the effect of driving out of business competing makers of "telematics," as the second element of the system is called, the Commission said.
The firms agreed not to use their toll-collection equipment for telematics until an independent company is created to sell access on a non-discriminatory basis.
Along the way, the Commission will watch over the situation and will be required to give its approval.
The Commission said the company "will be open to other shareholders and not controlled" by DaimlerChrysler or Deutsche Telekom.
The Commission said that telematics, according to a recent study, is expected to grow in value in Europe from 160 million euros ($178 million) in 2001 to 4.7 billion euros in 2009.
In addition to agreeing to the moratorium and to the development of an independent firm, the companies agreed to develop an interface so that third parties can hook up their own equipment to the new standard equipment created by DaimlerChrysler.
The DaimlerChrysler product design will also be able to be integrated into competing telematics devices.
That should open the market to truck makers to integrate the systems into their new vehicles without having to rely on DaimlerChrysler's equipment, the Commission said.