Sofia Administrative Court has ruled that the employees of the city's public transport company could no longer issue fines to passengers caught without tickets in urban transport, since as a commercial enterprise it was not allowed to issue administrative penalties as fines, mediapool.bg reported on February 26 2008.

Should a ticketless passenger refuse to buy the seven leva tickets sold as a means of fining them, the only resort is for the company's employees to ask the passenger to leave the vehicle, the court ruled. Regular tickets sell for 0.7 leva.

Sofia city hall hit back, promising to appeal the ruling in the Supreme Administrative Court. "Sofia municipal council will appeal the decision with the Supreme Administrative Court and until it makes a ruling, the regulation will remain in effect and will be applied in all vehicles on the territory of Sofia municipality," it said in a statement on its website.

The city hall has announced ambitions plans to upgrade all public transport stops in the city, installing automated vending machines and making it next to impossible for passengers to get on vehicles without a ticket, as opposed to the current system, where it relies on passenger buying tickets and using its once inside, while employees of the public transport company carry out random checks to ensure the system is not being abused.

However, it would cost the city hall in excess of 100 million leva to carry out such a sweeping change and mayor Boiko Borissov has linked the introduction of the system to a concession on advertising at the stops as a way of bolstering investor interests, which in turn has led to speculation in Bulgarian press that he was using the ticketing issue as a excuse to hand out advertising contracts to companies eager to step on that booming market.