Poor-quality evidence overturns €10,000 fine against Air France over forged document
Poor-quality evidence has turned the tide in a legal dispute between Air France and the French state. A court overturned a fine imposed on the airline after a Moroccan passenger arrived at Roissy with a forged Italian travel document.
On November 24, 2022, a Moroccan passenger arrived at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle Airport on an Air France flight from Casablanca. His Italian travel document was forged. The Interior Ministry found that the airline should have detected the irregularities before boarding and fined it 10,000 euros in October 2023. Air France challenged the penalty, but the Paris Administrative Court rejected its application in July 2025.
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French regulations require carriers to check their passengers’ travel documents. However, an airline can avoid a penalty when the documents presented at boarding show no obvious irregularities that would be detectable through a normally careful inspection.
Poor-quality evidence turns the tide
To justify its penalty, the ministry cited two irregularities: a security feature whose glitter ink allegedly did not react normally when the document was tilted, and poor-quality microprinting.
But Air France challenged the reliability of the evidence presented. In its ruling of July 10, 2026, the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal found that the first irregularity could only be verified by examining the original document. As for the second, the comparison sheet produced by the authorities was itself of insufficient quality, potentially exaggerating the document’s alleged defects.
The judges had asked the ministry to provide a higher-quality reproduction, but none was provided. They therefore found that the evidence presented did not show that the irregularities were sufficiently visible for Air France staff to detect them at boarding.
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The court ultimately overturned both the first-instance ruling and the ministerial penalty. Air France was cleared of the 10,000-euro fine, and the state was ordered to pay it 1,000 euros in legal costs. The decision comes nearly four years after the Casablanca–Paris flight.
