EU law precludes a national law that, by allowing the transfer of responsibility for compliance with the driving times and rest periods of drivers to a third person, prevents the calling into question of the transport undertaking’s good repute and the adoption of penalties against it, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in a judgment on Thursday 11 May (Case C-155/22).
In Austria, a road transport undertaking appointed a “responsible agent”, who was in charge of ensuring that the working times of its drivers were respected. This person was neither a transport manager nor a person authorised to represent the undertaking vis-à-vis third parties. Nor did they have any significant influence on the management of the undertaking.
This “responsible agent” is challenging before an Austrian court several fines imposed on them by the administration for violations of the rules on daily driving hours and tachograph use. According to the Austrian court, because the person is designated the “responsible agent”, they are criminally liable for the offences in question. Furthermore, according to Austrian law, the conduct of the person so designated cannot be taken into account for the purpose of assessing whether the road transport undertaking meets the requirement of good repute laid down in Regulation (1071/2009) governing the conditions to be complied with to pursue the business of road transport operator.
In its judgment, the Court finds that the Austrian legislation, in violation of EU law, prevents the possible questioning of the good repute of road transport undertakings and the imposition of penalties against them, whilst the persons designated as ‘responsible agents’ by these companies have committed serious infringements of the rules of EU law. Otherwise, in the Court’s view, the commission of infringements, irrespective of their number and seriousness, could never result in the loss of that good repute.
See the Court’s judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/6vh (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)