Europe 1 with AFP 1:57 p.m., June 27, 2022, modified at 1:57 p.m., June 27, 2022

In a decision of June 23, the Administrative Court of Rouen recognized the financial damage suffered by the Société des Autoroutes de Paris-Normandie (SAPN) and the Sanef (Société des Autoroutes du Nord et de l'Est de la France) during the demonstrations of "yellow vests".

Consequently, the State will have to pay more than 584,000 euros to the motorway companies.

The state was ordered to pay more than 584,000 euros to the motorway companies SAPN and Sanef for financial damage suffered during the demonstrations of "yellow vests" organized between November 2018 and June 2019, we learned on Monday.

The State will have to pay 27,687 euros to Sanef, after five demonstrations organized at toll stations, and 557,300 euros to SAPN after 32 demonstrations having led in particular to "operations allowing users to take the motorway without paying the TOLL".

This decision follows a rejection by the prefects of Eure and Seine-Maritime to compensate the two companies.

"The State is civilly responsible"

"These facts, which occurred in a context of nationwide protests, were not (...) committed by groups that would have been formed and organized for the sole purpose of committing crimes, unrelated to the protest movement national scale of the Yellow Vests, contrary to what the prefect of Seine-Maritime "and Eure argues in defense, notes the judgment.

To justify its decision, the court relied in particular on an article of the internal security code, according to which "the State is civilly liable for damages and damages resulting from crimes and offenses committed (...) by crowds or gatherings armed or unarmed, either against persons or against property".

Justice also recognized the existence of degradations.