A Port du Rhin company was sentenced on January 12 for operating a facility classified for environmental protection without authorization. She was fined nearly 150,000 euros and banned from operating for one year.
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Margaux Delanys
“My client is the one who has invested the most to prevent this type of inconvenience. » The lawyer for the Anti-Pollution and Environmental Protection Society (Sappe) tried everything during the hearing on December 11, 2025 at the Strasbourg judicial court. This company at the Rhine port notably stored petroleum coke and vinasse extract, two substances dangerous to health.
The defense arguments did not convince the judges. In its deliberations delivered on January 12, the court found Sappe guilty of the offenses of operating and continuing an industrial activity classified for environmental protection (ICPE) without authorization.
Two offenses and a string of fines
For these two offenses, the company was fined 120,000 euros, compared to the 200,000 euros initially required by prosecutor Priscille Cazaux. This conviction, against which Sappe can appeal, is accompanied by a ban on carrying out any sorting, transit or waste consolidation activity for one year.
In March 2024, as revealed Rue89 Strasbourgthe prosecution had referred the matter to the judge of liberties, who had suspended the petroleum coke storage activity of the Sappe company. The judge ordered “the immediate suspension of the activities of the Sappe company relating to petroleum coke and stillage extract, for a maximum period of 10 months”pending obtaining environmental authorization for its activity.
The company received several other fines linked to its operations, ranging from 1,500 euros for not having sent its report on air quality to Dreal, to 5,000 euros for not having sufficiently maintained the surroundings of its site.
The company Bio Brasseurs, which had filed a civil suit, obtained recognition of its moral damage. As such, Sappe is also ordered to pay a symbolic euro and to pay Bio Brasseurs’ legal costs of 7,230 euros.
“Signal sent to installations”
“This decision is a good signal sent to installations classified for environmental protection”rejoices Me François Zind, the lawyer for the company Bio Brasseurs. The company, which produces Kombucha at the Port du Rhin, had taken the matter to the Strasbourg public prosecutor’s office over its neighbor’s dust emissions. “We cannot live next to an industrial zone. I wouldn’t live there.”replied Lucien Modery, manager of the farm who appeared on December 11 at the Strasbourg court.
This decision by the Strasbourg court comes in a context of strengthening environmental criminal law, notes Bio Brasseurs’ lawyer. A European Union directive has thus expanded environmental attacks and strengthened sanctions linked to environmental crime. Like other member states, France has until May 21, 2026 to transpose the directive into national law.
