Traffic ticket, what should I do?

You can't pay a fine you don't receive.
In theory, Europcar "used" your fee to cover the admin costs of getting your details to the French fine recovery services.
So if France wants to mail you the fine, they will.
In the meantime, there is nothing you can do, and it won't matter when you pick up a car next spring. The only consequence of not paying a fine is that the fine balloons to triple digits after a while (but still less than €500 for most offences)... but again, that's only if the fine is notified to you in the first place.
And yes, France is apparently less tenacious than some other European countries when it comes to recovering fines abroad.

What is the Ottawa Strada? Now to the ticket: do what the supervisor at Auto Europe said and ignore it. The tickets are not always processed and mailed to the United States. If by last June you mean June 2021, you have been thinking about this way too long. If you mean June 2022, the ticket might still arrive but likely will not and if it does, pay it and if it does not, forget about it. If the ticket shows up and by the time you receive it the increased fines have come into effect, pay the base amount and explain that the envelope arrived after the penalty started to increase.

Thanks very much Balso and JHK. Good to hear that France is less tenacious than some other European countries. Years ago we did receive a citation from Italy for traffic offense. It took quite a bit of time and effort but we finally were able to pay it in US dollars with a check from our checking account (no way could we get them to accept a credit card payment). Even better to hear that I probably won't wind up in a French jail.
JHK: the Ottawa Strada is my voice activated system from Nuance, a.k.a. the Dragon, trying in vain to understand the word "auto". My bad for not double/triple checking before I posted. I did mean this past June which was 2022. Thanks to both of you for your help and encouragement.

Kay, I received speeding tickets in both France and Scotland and was charged the handling fee by the car rental places (they even showed me copies of the ticket) but I never received the ticket itself from the authorities. I even tried to reach out directly to pay it, but the ticket was no longer in their systems. It’s been over five years since both.

UPDATE! There was a great article in the New York Times business section on Monday, October 17, 2022 (Page B7 in the print version) addressing this very thing. The article is titled "Help! A car rental company charged me for speeding tickets I never received." This is a Tripped Up article which is the column written by Seth Kugel. Apparently it's not unusual for countries like France to not send the ticket for one year or 18 months or never. Seth, the travel writer looked into this (opaque as it was) and was at long last able to get some information. Europcar evidently has a policy that if you do not receive the traffic citation within one year from the date of the violation you can contact Europcar and ask them to refund the administration fee. Interesting, but not my main concern. As per this article "the French Interior Ministry told me that fines must be issued within a year of the infraction." I believe this means the infraction notice must be mailed by this date, not that it must be received by this date.
Abby: thanks very much for your input. It seems like this happens not infrequently. It's good to know that I won't be liable for this ticket if it's received after 18 months or, better yet, not at all.

In France the limitation period for fines is 1 year, however if a reminder is sent by the administration before this period of 1 year, it extends the limitation period which restarts to be 1 year from this reminder. . So you can be asked to pay a fine even if it's been over a year.

It’s not as simple JoLui, it can be three years. There are two possible scenarios here in fact in Kay's case (I'm no expert but I've been done twice in France in the past, with a rental car... Once with a UK driving licence, when I was living there).

The two key time limits (“délais de prescription”, the timeframe after which the contravention procedure is abandoned; what’s called “statute of limitation” in UK law, in US law as well I think) to bear in mind here are 12 months and 3 years, depending on a number of factors.

The one-year rule is as such (stipulated in article 9-2 of the French penal procedure code):

“Quel délai de prescription pour une amende ?
Si une contravention n’est pas envoyée dans l’année suivant la date d’infraction, l’auteur de cette infraction ne peut plus être condamné, selon l’article 9 du Code de procédure pénale. Une contravention trop tardive n’a donc aucune valeur.”

So, if the fine hasn’t been sent or activated within a year, the procedure against the recipient of an infringement notice stops there and then. Unless, there is what’s called un “un acte de procédure interruptif” in that year (so, basically some legal action that interrupts it, could be as basic as a reminder being sent, as you write JoLui).

So, basically if by some miracle the fine hasn’t been triggered by the CNT in Rennes (the National Processing Centre for road traffic offences, where it's all centralised, big centre, they treat over 20 million speeding fines a year), the rental company or yourself haven’t heard or received anything for a year, you’re fine as no legal action has taken place (note that it must be a rare scenario!).

Doesn’t seem to apply to Kay's case as the rental company has charged her a handling fee.

Now, the three-year rule, which could affect Kay:

“À partir de quelle date court le délai de prescription de contravention ?
Le délai de prescription d’une contravention court à partir de l’émission de la contravention, au moment où le ministère public signe le titre exécutoire autorisant le Trésor public à transmettre l’avis de contravention pour le paiement. C’est alors un délai de prescription de 3 ans qui s’applique. Mais s’il y a une audience, le conducteur en tort peut invoquer une exception de prescription, comme vu précédemment, et si les critères nécessaires s’appliquent.”

So, basically, from the date the fine has been issued, if three years elapse during which what’s called the “Trésor public” (basically, the part of the admin tasked with recovering fines and monies for the French state) hasn’t managed to recover the fine/debt (called the “délai pour le recouvrement de l'amende”), so if the fine has remained unpaid or if there hasn’t been any sanction (some people cannot genuinely pay the fine, so other avenues are taken, could be a suspension of the driving licence, or a driver/speed awareness course), then the legal action stops there (article 133-4 of the penal code).

Thank you, JoLui. good to know. Tom_MN: Indeed, France is not Italy. Merci beaucoup to all.