True or false. Can we really flee from control in the Paris metro without any risk of prosecution?

A video shared several million times on social networks challenges RATP controllers. A young man films himself as he refuses to submit to verbalization and suggests that the controllers are not allowed to challenge him. What is wrong.

End of June, a video Very shared on Tiktok accumulates several million views. We see there a young man who films himself in front of the porticos of the Paris metro, facing six controllers of the RATP. One of them asked him for his transport title. He doesn’t have it. The agents then ask him to put himself to the side to be verbalized, but the young man refuses and tries to prove that he can leave freely, without compliance.

Faced with the camera, the fraudster launches: “Do you force me to do the verbalization? I can leave? A controller answers him calmly:” I invite you to go see my colleagues, then you can leave “ The young man concludes: “No, I’m going to leave … Come on, have a good day!”, Before moving away without being, at least in the image, selected.

On the extract from the published video, the controllers remain impassive. A banner comments on the scene: “This tiktokeur brilliantly dismantles the absurdity of controls in transport.”

Contrary to what the video suggests, one cannot legally leave the premises without consequences. According to Article L2241-2 of the transport code, if a person refuses to communicate his identity during a check, the sworn agents of the RATP can call on the police and “Retain the individual for the time of arrival”. Trying to flee or refuse to cooperate constitutes an offense. The sentence incurred can go up to two months in prison and 7,500 euros fine.

The transport code does not precisely describe this case where you flee physically, but the RATP recalls that another text applies: Article 73 of the Criminal Procedure Code. He provides that anyone can apprehend the author of a flagrant offense liable to prison and lead him before a judicial police officer.

Concretely, this means that a controller can run after a fraudster and try to hold him until the police arrive. The RATP has 1,200 controllers, supported by 1,000 security agents for this. Some are armed, indicates the press service.

Questioned on this subject, the RATP adds – not without irony – that the video cuts itself down very quickly, and that it is unknown if the young man was finally caught. The rule is the same at the SNCF. In trains, no passenger can escape control. In case of refusal to comply, it is an offense, punished by law.