Commission refers FRANCE to the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding its labelling requirements for waste sorting

Today, the Commission decided to refer France to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to address the incompatibility of its labelling requirements concerning waste sorting instructions with Articles 34-36 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

In France, household products that fall under an extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme must be materially labelled with the ‘Triman logo', a signage informing that the product is the object of sorting rules, and the ‘infotri', information specifying the methods for sorting.

National rules that lay down requirements - such as those relating labelling - to be met by goods coming from other Member States where they are lawfully manufactured and marketed, represent obstacles to free movement of goods and constitute measures of equivalent effect prohibited by Article 34 TFEU.

In absence of EU harmonised rules concerning waste sorting instructions to consumers, national-specific labelling requirements in this field, as stipulated in the French legislation, amount to such measures, as these requirements oblige operators to adjust their products only for the French market.

Moreover, the French requirements can be considered disproportionate, as other suitable options - less restrictive of trade between Member States - are available to inform consumers, until the EU-level harmonisation is achieved. In fact, according to the new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, harmonised rules in this respect should be detailed in future implementing acts.

According to the Commission, France is also in breach of the notification obligations under the Single Market Transparency Directive (Directive (EU) 2015/1535) as the concerned measure was not notified to the Commission at a draft stage, prior to adoption.

The Commission had initially sent a letter of formal notice in February 2023, followed by a reasoned opinion in November 2024. As the Commission considers that France is still in breach of EU rules, it has decided to bring the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

As highlighted in the recent Communication COM(2025)500 “The Single Market: our European home market in an uncertain world”, the Commission is committed to removing  barriers that significantly hamper the ability of European companies to benefit from the Single Market, for the benefit of the EU economy and consumers.

Background

National measures that are capable of hindering, directly or indirectly, actually or potentially intra-EU trade are measures having an equivalent effect to a quantitative restriction. National labelling requirements concerning waste sorting instructions can amount to such measures.

For More Information

EU infringement procedure

Infringement decisions database and infringements map and graphs

July 2025 infringements package

Infringement procedure France (INFR(2022)4028)