Luxury car rental: Teddy Riner loses his lawsuit against the tax authorities

Sanction. The Versailles administrative court of appeal has confirmed the tax authorities in a recovery linked to Teddy Riner and his luxury car rental company, in dispute with the Bercy services which had singled out the personal use of certain vehicles, said Tuesday L'Equipe.

At the end of 2025, the media L'Informé indicated that the five-time Olympic judo champion had challenged before the Cergy-Pontoise administrative court - without winning - a tax adjustment imposed in 2019 (for 2016 and 2017) and linked to the luxury car rental company he owns.

The tax administration pointed out the fact that Teddy Riner was the "exclusive driver" of two of these vehicles, a Ferrari and a Rolls-Royce, and had considered that the charges for these cars constituted a benefit in kind attributed by the company to the judoka, "on the grounds that they were not incurred as part of the rental activity" of the company "but constituted hidden remuneration and benefits for Teddy Riner", again according to the Informed.

Tuesday, L'Equipe indicates that "in a decision rendered on October 15", the magistrates of the administrative court of appeal of Versailles "confirm the tax administration, which had underlined a + deliberate intention + of Teddy Riner to + reduce the tax +". The judoka “could not be unaware that the costs and charges relating to these vehicles had not been incurred by the company for the carrying out of operations consistent with its corporate purpose, and that he was, for some of these vehicles, the exclusively designated driver,” writes the Team, citing the decision.

Consulted by AFP, a decision was indeed rendered in these terms on October 15 by the Versailles Court of Appeal but all the names of people and companies have been anonymized.

The sports daily recalled on Tuesday that the company's lawyers notably defended themselves "by asserting that the vehicles had been poorly rented in 2017 because of the 'geopolitical context' marked the previous year by 'terrorist attacks which had the effect of alienating foreign customers'. Contacted by AFP, Teddy Riner's entourage did not respond Tuesday afternoon.