Key facts of the case:
The President of the company TCMG, active in the field of transportation between France and the United Kingdom, asked Ms X to have her drivers register as time of availability and not of rest the one hour and 45 minutes, on average, that they spent on board the ferry between Dover and Calais (on the tachographs installed in their vehicles). The services of the labour inspectorate observed, verbally, that the situation was not resolved and that Ms X imposed the opposite practice on her drivers. Ms X was summoned before the Correctional Tribunal for having, between 7 March 2006 and 31 May 2007, first, irregularly used the system set up to control working conditions in the road transport sector, and second, dissimulating work of 9 employees by mentioning in their pay slips a number of working hours inferior to that accomplished. The confirmation judgment of the Court of Appeal of Poitiers of 17 February 2011 declared Ms X guilty and sentenced her to the payment of a fine and publication of the decision for a period of one month, on the doors of the room reserved for drivers of the company.
But on the argument, taken in its second and third parts; Considering article 3-b of Directive No. 2002/15/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2002 and L.8221-5 of the labour code, together with articles 49 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and 111-3 of the criminal code; Given that, on the one hand, no one can be sentenced for an action or an omission which, at the time of commission, did not constitute an offence under domestic nor international law.