On 2 March 2023, the Court of Justice handed down its judgment in Case C‑666/21, AI v Åklagarmyndigheten, on the interpretation of Article 2(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006. The request has been made in proceedings between AI and the Åklagarmyndigheten (Swedish Public Prosecutor’s Office) concerning an infringement of the rules on the use of tachographs.

During a police check, it was found that the vehicle driven by AI, registered in Sweden and transporting two snowmobiles in the cargo area, was fitted with a tachograph which had not been inspected within the prescribed period. At a later time, the Sundsvall tingsrätt (District Court of Sundsvall) convicted AI for speeding, but acquitted him of the offence of failing to submit the tachograph fitted to his vehicle for an inspection. Furthermore, since the latter contained only six seats for passengers, that court held that it did not fall within the scope of Regulation No 561/2006.

Both AI and the Public Prosecutor then appealed to the Hovrätten för Nedre Norrland (Court of Appeal of Southern Norrland; the “referring court”) which, in light of the need to interpret the relevant European legislation, decided to stay the proceedings and to ask to the Court of Justice whether Article 2(1)(a) of Regulation No 561/2006, read in conjunction with Article 3(h) of that regulation, must be interpreted to the effect that the notion of “carriage by road of goods”, within the meaning of the first of those provisions, covers carriage by road by a vehicle whose maximum permissible mass, within the meaning of Article 4(m) of that regulation, exceeds 7.5 tonnes, including where it is fitted out not only as a temporary private living area but also for the non-commercial loading of goods, taking into account, if appropriate, that vehicle’s cargo capacity and the category in which it appears in the national road traffic register.

According to the Court, it follows from a combined reading of Article 3(h) with Article 2(1)(a) of Regulation No 561/2006 that the non-commercial carriage by road of goods is excluded from its scope only where the maximum permissible mass of the vehicle concerned does not exceed 7.5 tonnes. Conversely, where it exceeds 7.5 tonnes, the non-commercial carriage by road of goods falls within the scope of Regulation No 561/2006 and must therefore comply with the rules on driving times, breaks and rest periods of drivers laid down by that regulation, as well as the obligations and requirements relating to the installation, use and control of tachographs under Regulation No 165/2014. Furthermore, the scope of Regulation No 561/2006 is determined by the “maximum permissible mass” of the vehicle concerned, without its load capacity or the category in which it is entered in the national road traffic register being relevant for that purpose.

Marco Stillo