On Thursday 17 July, the European Commission announced that it was referring France to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) for maintaining measures that constitute obstacles to the free movement of products within the internal market. It is aimed at the ‘Triman’ and ‘info-tri’ recycling logos that France imposes on all recyclable packaging and products.
This obligation is not proportionate, according to the Commission, given that other less restrictive alternatives exist.
In addition, it considers that France has failed to comply with the Single Market Transparency Directive by not notifying the Commission of these new obligations when they were introduced.
The letter of formal notice sent to Paris in 2023, followed by the reasoned opinion in November 2024, were not enough to convince France to reverse these two logos.
In its ‘Single Market Strategy’, the European Commission promised that it would proceed more quickly with infringement procedures, when Member States impose rules that are considered to be obstacles in the Internal Market. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)