CEDH · PRESS;ADMISSIBILITYDECISIONS;ENG — 6 mai 2010

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France (application no. 3221/10)   Unanimously:   INADMISSIBILITY OF APPLICATION CONCERNING PROCEDURE FOR DEDUCTING POINTS FROM DRIVING LICENCE     Principal facts   The applicant, Yann Sébastien Duteil, is a French national who was born in 1987 and lives in Hyères (France). He passed his driving test in October 2007 and under the applicable domestic law he was issued with a provisional licence until the end of November 2009, with six points instead of the twelve a normal licence carried.   On 13 July 2009 Mr Duteil failed a breathalyser test and was issued with a fine. On the police form the “points deducted” box was ticked, but the number of points to be deducted was not specified. It also said on the form that payment of the fine amounted to acknowledgment of the offence and of the consequent loss of points from the driver’s licence, and that if the “points deducted” box had been ticked, the points would be deducted as soon as the offence had been acknowledged by payment of the fine. Mr Duteil paid the 90 euro fine on an unspecified date. On 25 November 2009 he received notification that he had lost six points and that his licence had therefore been cancelled, as he had no points left. He was instructed to hand his licence in to the authorities.   Mr Duteil did not challenge the lawfulness of the loss of points before the administrative courts, considering that an appeal to Conseil d’Etat had no chance of succeeding in view of the existing case-law.   Complaints, procedure and composition of the Court   Relying mainly on Article 6 § 1 (right of access to court) of the European Convention on Human Rights, Mr Duteil contended that the failure to indicate the number of points he was likely to lose had prevented him from realising that he should have lodged an appeal. Relying on Article 6 § 3 a) (right to be informed promptly of the nature of the accusation) of the Convention, he also complained that he had not been fully informed of the penalty he might incur, namely, that he might lose his licence.   The application was lodged on 11 January 2010. The decision on admissibility was given by a Chamber composed of seven judges: Peer Lorenzen (Denmark), President , Renate Jaeger (Germany), Jean-Paul Costa (France), Karel Jungwiert (the Czech Republic), Mark Villiger (Liechtenstein), Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Zdravka Kalaydjieva (Bulgaria), judges , and also Stephen Phillips , Deputy Section Registrar .     Decision of the Court   Complaint concerning the right of access to court (Article 6 § 1)   The Court pointed out that it had already held that a procedure leading to the loss of points from a driving licence had to meet the requirements of Article 6 (criminal limb). In the present case, however, Mr Duteil could not validly argue that he had been deprived of his right of access to a court to challenge the fine. He could have paid the fine, thereby accepting it, or he could have challenged it within a given period. He had chosen to pay it. In those circumstances, his first complaint was manifestly ill-founded and would therefore not be examined on the merits (application of Article 35 §§ 3 and 4 – conditions of admissibility).   Complaint concerning the right to be informed promptly of the nature of the accusation (Article 6 § 3 a))   The Court did not consider it necessary to examine whether this complaint should first have been brought before the domestic courts, as it was in any event inadmissible for the following reasons. The ticket issued to Mr Duteil stated that payment of the fine amounted to acknowledgment of the offence and that points could be lost from the driving licence. Under French law points were deducted according to a clearly defined scale, depending on the offence. Had he wished to know how many points he would lose, Mr Duteil could simply have asked the police officer who fined him. Failing that, he had had 45 days to obtain the information from the prefecture, a lawyer or the Internet. In any event he had been given sufficient information about the impugned measure and this complaint was therefore also manifestly ill ‑ founded (application of Article 35 §§ 3 and 4).   ****   The decision is available only in French. It is accessible on the Court’s Internet site ( http://www.echr.coe.int ). This press release is a document produced by the Registry; the summary it contains does not bind the Court.   Press contacts Frédéric Dolt (tel: + 33 (0)3 90 21 53 39) or Stefano Piedimonte (tel: + 33 (0)3 90 21 42 04) Tracey Turner-Tretz (tel: + 33 (0)3 88 41 35 30) Kristina Pencheva-Malinowski (tel: + 33 (0)3 88 41 35 70) Céline Menu-Lange (tel: + 33 (0)3 90 21 58 77) Nina Salomon (tel: + 33 (0)3 90 21 49 79)   The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.