In 2011, the French government entered into a 13-year partnership with a company called Ecomouv' to implement an eco-tax on heavy trucks weighing over 3.5 tonnes. The plan was to charge these vehicles based on the distance they traveled, using GPS technology and 173 control gates installed on national roads by 2013. The system aimed to encourage more environmentally friendly transportation by making trucking more expensive based on distance traveled, with the revenue intended to support infrastructure projects. However, the project faced significant challenges from the start. The eco-tax system was suspended in October 2013 due to strong opposition from the Breton "red berets," a group of truck drivers known for their protests, and concerns over the fragile state of the agro-food sector. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault officially halted the system on October 29, 2013. Despite three years of administrative preparation and a brief operational phase, the contract with Ecomouv' was terminated in October 2014. The French government ended up paying Ecomouv' nearly 957.58 million euros to abandon the project, with no revenue ever collected from the tax. The Court of Audit later described the situation as a "public policy failure," pointing out that the government had no legal basis for ending the project. The total financial burden of the failed eco-tax included not only the 957.58 million euros paid to Ecomouv' but also an additional 70 million euros in administrative costs and 270 million euros set aside for potential legal risks. The government had estimated that the system could have generated 9.83 billion euros over its planned operating period, which was meant to fund the French Transport Infrastructure Financing Agency. However, the failure of the project led to the government increasing the internal consumption tax on energy products (TICPE), which placed a greater financial burden on French transporters and drivers. The eco-tax project also had human and economic consequences, including the layoff of 210 employees from Ecomouv', with some undergoing retraining in public institutions that later struggled to support them. Environment Minister Ségolène Royal, who was in office during the project's cancellation, later admitted the government should have held Ecomouv' accountable rather than quickly compensating it. Some remnants of the failed system, such as metal structures from the control gates, still remain on French roads. The topic resurfaced in 2021 during a parliamentary debate on climate policy, where some officials suggested repurposing the gates for a new toll system, though the idea did not move forward.