Shedding light on establishing a European legal framework for digital ticketing resulting from the French experience
This article by Jordan Cartier, General Secretary of the French Transport Regulatory Authority, originally appeared in the European Transport Regulation Observer 'Single Digital Booking and Ticketing'
In France, the 2019 Mobility Orientation Act (Loi d’orientation des mobilités) established a set of rights and obligations applicable to multimodal digital mobility services and transport service providers for digital ticketing at the regional level or under public service obligations. This regime was intended to support the development of multimodal digital mobility services in order to facilitate intermodality and encourage a shift from private cars to cleaner modes of transport.
The law entrusted the French Transport Regulatory Authority (ART) with the task of monitoring this regime. To this end, ART may be called upon to settle disputes between multimodal digital mobility services and transport service providers and may, on its own initiative or following a complaint, investigate, establish and sanction breaches of obligations laid down by legislation. Several proceedings have been brought before ART since 2024. It has already issued a series of decisions requiring transport service providers to publish the general and specific conditions of access to their digital sales service by multimodal digital mobility services.
As a result, in 2019 French law designated ART to be the regulatory body of “intelligent transport systems” in their dual dimensions – ticketing and travel information – entrusting it with monitoring the opening of mobility data under the conditions laid down in European implementing Regulation 2017/1926.
Thanks to the 2019 Mobility Orientation Act, the French ART is responsible for monitoring this regime, handling disputes, and ensuring compliance with the law. This framework aims to streamline passenger journeys and enhance competition in national rail markets dominated by incumbents. For a successful European legal framework for multimodal digital services, clear definitions and the establishment of a robust regulatory body with proper investigative tools are essential.
Lessons from France for a European Legal Framework
The French experience can shed light on the current debates on the establishment of a European legal framework for digital ticketing. This legislative initiative should make it possible to achieve the dual objective of (i) streamlining passenger journeys and (ii) opening up national rail markets, which are dominated by incumbent operators and their platforms.
The main advantage of the French legal framework is that early on it established a set of rights and obligations applicable to multimodal digital mobility services and transport service providers for the digital distribution of transport tickets and put this regime under the control of an economic regulator. The procedures introduced by the ART and the first injunctions it has already issued illustrate the need to combine the introduction of a system of rights and obligations with the establishment of a body responsible for monitoring its application in order to ensure its effectiveness. In this regard, the economic transport regulatory body appears to be well placed for two reasons. On the one hand, the aim is to create the conditions for a level playing field for multimodal digital mobility services by regulating the conditions of access to sales infrastructure for transport service providers; on the other hand, this development must contribute to removing barriers to entry for new players in passenger rail transport.
Key Weaknesses in the Current French Framework
However, the French legal framework has three main weaknesses. First, it limits the system of rights and obligations to regional services and services under public service obligations. In doing so, it excludes open access services at the national level. This limitation presents two difficulties. On the one hand, it does not fully meet the objective of facilitating the development of efficient multimodal digital mobility services as it excludes a significant proportion of the rail services available at the national level. On the other hand, it does not support opening up of the passenger rail transport market by allowing new entrants in the high-speed sector to be distributed by the incumbent operator’s platform, which remains largely dominant.
Second, this legal framework appears insufficiently clear and precise in terms of its scope, both with regard to the definition of multimodal digital mobility services and the transparent, fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions applicable to digital ticketing. These uncertainties have led, on the one hand, to delays and obstacles in the conclusion of contracts between service managers and platforms and, on the other hand, to the regulator being called on to interpret this legal framework – even beyond ruling on the conditions for its implementation – in order to settle disputes brought before it.
Third, the law has not put in place the tools that would enable the regulatory body to effectively investigate disputes brought before it. In particular, the law has not imposed an obligation of functional or accounting separation of multimodal digital services from the service operators with which they are integrated.
A European Path Forward
In conclusion, while the establishment of a European regime of rights and obligations applicable to multimodal digital services and mobility service managers could facilitate passenger journeys and the opening up of rail markets in the Union, two conditions appear to be necessary to ensure its effectiveness. On the one hand, an unambiguous definition of the services covered and the establishment of clear principles. On the other hand, the establishment of a regulatory body with the appropriate tools – such as functional and accounting separation obligations – to ensure compliance with this regime.
Read the full Policy Brief ‘Single digital booking and ticketing, and multimodal digital mobility services’ for more information.
