Background
FT, a truck driver, was fined BGN 1,500 in Bulgaria for driving a vehicle on 26 July 2024 using a driver card issued to another person. Article 27 of Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 makes driver cards personal and permits a driver to use only that driver’s own card.
Bulgarian law set that fine at a fixed amount. Neither the administrative authority nor the reviewing court could reduce it for the circumstances of the individual case, including whether this was a first offence, whether FT held his own driver card, why the other card was used, or whether the conduct was negligent. The referring court noted that the fine exceeded the average Bulgarian wage.
The Court’s Holding
The Court held that Article 41 of Regulation No 165/2014, which requires Member States to impose effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties, precludes national legislation imposing a very high fine on a driver who uses another person’s driver card if the amount cannot be reduced in light of the particular circumstances of the case.
The Court stressed that using another person’s card is classified as a most serious infringement because it prevents effective monitoring of driving and rest-time rules from the moment the card is used. Therefore, a very short period of use is not, in itself, a factor requiring a lower fine. But circumstances such as negligent rather than intentional use may be relevant to adjusting the penalty. It was for the Bulgarian court to verify whether the BGN 1,500 fine was sufficiently high, given the affected drivers’ average income, to trigger that conclusion.
Key Takeaways
- Member States may impose deterrent penalties for misuse of tachograph driver cards, but the penalty regime must permit proportionality review.
- A high fixed fine with no possibility of reduction for case-specific circumstances is incompatible with Article 41 where it is very high for the drivers concerned.
- The duration of misuse need not reduce the penalty, because another person’s card immediately frustrates enforcement; negligence may nevertheless be relevant.
Why It Matters
The judgment limits Member States’ ability to use rigid, high flat-rate sanctions for tachograph-card misuse. National systems must retain room to account for relevant individual circumstances while preserving strong deterrence for conduct that undermines monitoring of drivers’ working and rest-time rules.