Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2016:709
Date: 2016-09-21
Language of the case: Dutch
Court formation: Tenth Chamber
Subject matter: Transport
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Belgium

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)