The Conseil d’Etat decided that the decree - dating back to June 30th, 2023 and part of a wide-ranging environmental law - should not have been imposed because an EU regulation was being developed on specific restrictions on the use of certain forms of unnecessary packaging, in particular single-use packaging for fresh fruit and vegetables weighing less than 1.5 kg.
The EU had asked the French government to hold back on its plans to cut plastic waste until December that year to allow the bloc-wide scheme to be introduced uniformly and applying common standards across all 27 member states.
In its judgement, the Conseil said that the government had failed to take into account the European Commission’s request to postpone publication of the decree.
In doing so, it agreed with Elipso, an association representing plastic packaging manufacturers, and Plastalliance, a professional association of plastics processors, who both argued that the decree concerns a subject covered by a proposed European regulation.
It is the second time that the court has overruled a government ban on plastic packaging. An earlier decree, that provided for a gradual reduction of fruit and vegetables that could be sold in plastic packaging, that came into force in January 2022, was also overturned on technical grounds.
“We use an outrageous amount of single-use plastic in our daily lives,” the economy, ecological transition and agriculture ministries said in a combined statement when the first ban was introduced. They estimated at the time that 37 percent of fruit and vegetables sold in France were packaged in plastic.
That decree was annulled in December 2022.
