It would never slide in the US either. IAW myriad FAA legal opinions issued --- mostly over the issue of PPL holders towing gliders --- the cost-free [to the flight crew] flight time would be considered "compensation" in and of itself!
In this country's rather sizable soaring community, it was a hard-fought battle spanning some 30 or 40 years just for tow-pilots towing on a PPL to be allowed to so much as log the time. As late as the 1960's, a PPL with the proper experience requirements could tow, but God help him if he were caught entering the time in his logbook! That particular prohibition has since been lifted, but to this day, it has been on the condition that time logged in this manner by PPL's shall not be credited towards the aeronautical experience requirements of any certificate or rating, unless he can prove that he has paid an equal share of the operating expenses of the towplane! The reasoning? That the higher certificate earned in the process (e.g.: CPL) in itself constituted "compensation".
Reeks of "market protectionism" if you ask me; back in the late 1970's, the total time required for an FAA Commercial Pilot Certificate with an Airplane category rating was jacked up from 200 to 250, expressly for this reason.
------------------
Anybody out after 2 AM is either a !!!!, a cop or a pilot. Or any combination of the three!