How do I dispute a CityLink or EastLink toll notice in Victoria?

Both of Victoria’s toll roads, CityLink and EastLink, follow the same basic escalation whichever operator sent the notice. An unpaid toll first becomes a toll invoice carrying an administration fee, then an unpaid invoice becomes an overdue or final notice with a higher fee. If that is still unpaid, Victoria Police may issue an infringement notice, one for each 7-day period of unregistered travel on each toll road, and from that point the debt is enforced like any other Victorian infringement fine, through Fines Victoria rather than the operator. The point to act is before that infringement notice issues, not after.

Where you raise a dispute differs by operator. For CityLink, raise it with Linkt’s own customer care and resolutions teams first, in writing. If that does not resolve it, the Tolling Customer Ombudsman is a free, independent scheme covering Linkt toll roads in Queensland and Victoria (NSW split off to its own NSW Tollway Ombudsman from 1 January 2026, so it is a Victoria/Queensland-only scheme now, not a national one), it can investigate and propose a solution, and its decision binds the operator, though not you if you are unhappy with it. It cannot take a complaint you have not already raised with Linkt, cannot touch an infringement notice already issued by the authorities, and cannot address toll fee levels themselves. EastLink is different: it is not part of that Ombudsman scheme, so an unresolved EastLink complaint goes to EastLink’s own Customer Advocate instead, which carries the same limits, no power over a Victoria Police infringement notice or fine.

Once an infringement notice has actually issued, the dispute moves to Fines Victoria’s internal review process under the Infringements Act 2006, and one notable gap applies specifically to tolling offences: the common ‘person unaware’ ground, normally available where you only learned of a fine after the fact, is excluded for a tolling infringement. The realistic grounds are narrower, among them mistaken identity, which needs an explanation and supporting evidence such as a copy of your licence, or exceptional circumstances, and only one internal review can be lodged per infringement, so make it count. Hardship sits alongside this, not instead of it: both CityLink and EastLink run hardship policies that can agree to more time, a payment plan, or a reduction or waiver with evidence of your financial circumstances, and an operator that accepts hardship can ask Victoria Police to withdraw the infringement notice, a request it can still make even after Fines Victoria has started enforcing it.