EU rules in favour of two drivers in France in photo enforcement cases

The EU Human Rights Court has ruled in favour of two drivers who received traffic tickets from French authorities, but were not provided the means to contest them. Both men paid the fine required and one lost a point off his driver's permit. Both called for the reimbursement of the fine.
March 19, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The 1116 European Union Court of Human Rights has ruled in favour of two drivers who received traffic tickets from French authorities, but were not provided the means to contest them. Both men paid the fine required and one lost a point off his driver's permit. Both called for the reimbursement of the fine.

The EU court did not order that the fine or the point be reimbursed claiming that it was not competent in the matter of French driving law and that it could only review the fine reimbursement if the two drivers had been allowed access to judicial proceedings.

One driver claimed that he could not recognise himself as the driver of the vehicle without photographic evidence. The other said that he was not driving the vehicle during the infraction. An officer in the case threw out their demands and called for the fine to be paid.

In its defence, according to the French constitutional council, the lack of access to judicial recourse is not constitutional.

The EU court has also ruled that the officer exceeded his authority in demanding the fine.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • FIEC criticises contract awards and procurement practices
    January 20, 2014
    Europe’s contractors’ association, the FIEC, has criticised the EU’s new public procurement package, describing it as a missed opportunity. “The EU institutions did not seize the opportunity to solve one of the most severe shortcomings of the existing public procurement directives,” said Ulrich Paetzold, FIEC director general. “I mean by that the identification and treatment of abnormally low tenders, which is a real curse in the construction sector.” Today’s adoption by the European Parliament of the thre
    Read More
  • UK road safety plan announced
    July 18, 2019
    A new road safety plan for the UK has been announced. This includes a major package of measures to reduce the number of people killed and injured on roads. The action plan is designed to improve safety for people at every stage of life – from infants in car seats to those with years of driving experience. It includes increased penalties for failing to wear a seatbelt one of 74 measures being considered. Failure to wear a seatbelt could result in penalty points as well as fines, under new plans t
    Read More
  • Battering ram
    March 21, 2012
    A would-be car thief in China found that 13 is an unlucky number. During his attempted escape from pursuing police at Meizhou in China's Guangdong Province, the man managed to crash into 13 other vehicles. A traffic officer tried to flag down the driver of the stolen vehicle but the man instead began bulldozing his vehicle through the streets in an attempt to escape.
    Read More
  • Younger drivers
    February 24, 2012
    A seven year old US school boy was so keen to get to school when his parents slept in one morning that he took their car and attempted to drive himself. The boy unfortunately crashed the car en-route, although he only suffered minor injuries and was later discharged from hospital. He had missed the school bus and opted to take the car and drive to school but ran the car off the road several times before hitting an embankment and a utility pole. The boy arrived shortly after lunch after being taken to school
    Read More

Highlighted Content