Case C‑261/15

Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische Spoorwegen NV

v

Gregory Demey

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the

vredegerecht te Ieper)

‛Rail transport — Regulation (EC) No 1371/2007 — Passengers’ rights and obligations — Absence of a ticket — Failure to regularise within the prescribed period — Criminal offence’

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Tenth Chamber), 21 September 2016

Transport — Rail transport — Regulation No 1371/2007 — Rail passengers’ rights and obligations — Unticketed journey not regularised within the prescribed periods — No contractual relationship between the passenger and the railway undertaking

(European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1371/2007, Annex I, Art. 6(2))

The final sentence of Article 6(2) of Appendix A to the Convention Concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF), in Annex I to Regulation No 1371/2007 on rail passengers’ rights and obligations, must be interpreted as not precluding national provisions which lay down that a person making a train journey while not in possession of a ticket for that purpose, who fails to regularise his situation within the periods laid down in those provisions, does not have a contractual relationship with the railway undertaking.

Article 6(2) of Appendix A presupposes the existence of a contract of carriage concluded beforehand and relates only to the proof of the existence of such a contract. It follows that Article 6(2) does not govern the conditions for the formation of a contract of carriage, those conditions being governed by the relevant national provisions.

(see paras 26, 30, 34, 35, operative part)