July 18, 2025 14:51

After a formal notice and a reasoned opinion, the French government has now been referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to resolve the incompatibility of its labeling requirements for separate-collection instructions with Articles 34–36 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which safeguard the free movement of goods.

At the center of the dispute are the Triman logo—mandatory in France for all EPR schemes and designed to inform consumers of sorting rules—and Infotri, which sets out specific disposal instructions.

According to the European Commission, national rules that impose requirements such as labeling create obstacles to free movement when they must also be met by goods from other member states. With no EU-wide standards yet in place for consumer sorting instructions—harmonization is expected under the new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR)—these French requirements effectively force producers to tailor products solely for the French market, erecting a barrier to the single market.

Brussels goes further, deeming the French rules disproportionate because less trade-restrictive ways of informing consumers are available pending the harmonized standards that will emerge from future implementing acts of the Packaging Regulation.

Finally, the Commission says France breached the notification duties laid down in the Single Market Transparency Directive (Directive [EU] 2015/1535) by failing to submit the measure to the Commission at draft stage.

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