Advertisements for practices with excessive environmental impact

Verified 20 August 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

The advertisements encouraging practices with a excessive impact on climate or the environment. This concerns the incentive to degrade or discard products, or to purchase biocidal or polluting products. These advertisements can be authorized under conditions or prohibited.

Advertisements or commercial communication actions to promote the disposal of products are authorized.

Example :

“Throw away your old dishwasher and buy our new equipment...”.

However, these advertisements must must contain information encouraging re-use or recycling.

Failure to comply with this obligation is fined of a maximum of €3,000 for a natural person and €15,000 for a legal person.

Example :

Instead of throwing away [such a product], give it to give it a second life or favor recycling.

Any advertising or commercial communication action incentive to degrade products in a normal operating state and to prevent their re-use or re-use forbidden.

Example :

Incentive to break, burn, soil, erode, destroy, etc.

Failure to comply with this obligation is fined of a maximum of €3,000 for a natural person and €15,000 for a legal person.

Any advertising based on the fact whether a product contains little or no recovered waste is forbidden.

By way of derogation, advertisements based on this characteristic are permitted where the waste content recovered (recycled, reused, etc.) of the product impacts its substantial qualities.

Failure to comply with this obligation shall be considered as a deceptive marketing practice.

This offense is punishable by 2 years imprisonment and a fine of €300,000 (natural persons) or €1,500 000 (legal persons). These penalties may be increased in line with the benefits derived from the offense and if the offense was committed through the use of an online public communication service or through a digital or electronic medium.

Additional penalties may also be imposed.

All commercial advertising to the general public shall be forbidden for some categories of biocidal products.

The categories of biocidal products for which commercial advertising to the general public is prohibited are:

  • Rodenticides : products used to control mice, rats or other rodents by means other than repulsion or attraction
  • Insecticides, acaricides and products used to combat other arthropods : products used to control arthropods (such as insects, arachnids and crustaceans), by means other than repelling or attracting them
  • The products hazardous to the aquatic environment of category 1 : Acute Category 1 toxicity (H 400) and Chronic Category 1 toxicity (H 410), which are:
    • Disinfectants and algicidal products not intended for direct application to humans or animals: for swimming pools, aquariums, pond water and other waters, air conditioning systems, walls and floors, chemical toilets, waste water, hospital waste, etc. This also applies to products incorporated in textiles, fabrics, masks, paints, etc.
    • For use on surfaces in contact with food and feed: Products used for disinfecting equipment, containers, consumer utensils, surfaces or ducts used for the production, transport, storage or consumption of food or feed (including drinking water) intended for humans or animals.

Please note

That does not apply biocidal products eligible for the simplified authorization procedure. Biocides which may be affected by this procedure are those which do not contain a substance of concern, do not contain nanomaterials demonstrating sufficient efficacy and do not require personal protective equipment for use.

Failure to do so shall be punishable by thefine provided for contraventions of 5e class, of an amount of €1,500 (natural persons) or €7,500 (legal persons).

FYI  

By way of derogation, advertising intended for professional users shall be permitted in product distribution points reserved for such users and in publications intended for them.

Advertising relating to the marketing or promoting of fossil fuels is forbidden.

This applies only to fuels with a renewable energy content of less than or equal to 50%.

Prohibition of compensation for an ecological malus

Any form of advertising or communication offering a rebate or reduction which nullifies or reduces the effect of the tax on carbon dioxide emissions from passenger vehicles on the final consumer (malus CO2 and malus mass) is prohibited.

Mandatory promotional messages

All advertising of land-based motor vehicles shall be must be accompanied by a promotional message encouraging the use of active or shared mobility or public transport.

This applies to advertisements for the following vehicles:

  • Passenger vehicles with the exception of special purpose vehicles accessible by wheelchair:
    • Vehicles designed and constructed for the carriage of passengers and comprising, in addition to the driver's seat, not more than 8 seats (category M1), including in particular passenger cars
    • Vehicles designed and constructed for the carriage of goods having a maximum weight of not more than 3,5 tons (category N1) of the bodywork ‘truck pick-up’ with at least 5 places, except those used exclusively for the operation of ski lifts and ski areas
    • Vehicle designed and constructed for the carriage of goods of a maximum weight of 3,5 tons or less (category N1) intended for the carriage of passengers and their luggage or goods
  • 2- or 3-wheel motor vehicles and motor quadricycles (category L): scooters, motorcycles, quads, etc.

All these vehicles, whether their engine is thermal, hybrid, electric, or hydrogen, are concerned.

The obligation applies in and out of sales premises, and on the following advertising media :

  • Correspondence advertising aimed at private individuals
  • Publicly distributed advertising
  • Advertising Display
  • Advertisements in press publications
  • Cinema Ads
  • Advertisements issued by television or broadcasting services and by means of on-line communication services to the public.

This shall not apply to financial advertising or recruitment advertising, communication actions carried out in the context of sponsorship or patronage operations, or to institutional communication by means of publication or on dedicated sites.

FYI  

The messages that can be used are:

  • “For short journeys, opt for walking or cycling”
  • “Think about carpooling”
  • "Take public transport every day".

They must be presented in a easily legible or audible and clearly distinguishable the advertising message and any other mandatory particulars.

They are used within each advertising campaign to guarantee, by type of advertising medium, the regular appearance of each of them on an equal quantity of advertising messages, with a tolerance of plus or minus 10%.

Other obligations may apply depending on the advertising medium:

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Television or cinema

The mandatory broadcast message is included in a fixed horizontal space easily identifiable and distinct from any other mandatory particulars. The message must be held for a time allowing its reading in full.

Its presentation respects the rules and practices of good practice regularly defined by the profession, and in particular the rules laid down by the Authority for the Professional Regulation of Advertising (ARPP).

ARPP Code: Ethics Framework for Advertising Expression

Advertising Regulatory Authority (ARPP)

Pour en savoir plus

The message shall be supplemented, at the end of its presentation, by the mention of the signature: #SeDéplacerMoinsPolluer.

Radio

For broadcast advertising, the mandatory broadcast message is pronounced immediately after the commercial.

Still image on a printed medium or digital advertising screen

For advertisements in the form of a fixed image on a printed medium or on a digital advertising screen, the mandatory message broadcast is part of a horizontal space reserved for this text covering at least 7% of the advertising surface, easily identifiable and distinct from any other mandatory particulars. It shall be supplemented by a reference to the signature #SeDéplacerMoinsPolluer.

Its presentation respects the rules and practices of good practice regularly defined by the profession, and in particular the rules laid down by the Authority for the Professional Regulation of Advertising (ARPP).

ARPP Code: Ethics Framework for Advertising Expression

Advertising Regulatory Authority (ARPP)

Pour en savoir plus

In the case where several advertisements appear on the same page, the mandatory broadcast message and the reference #SeDéplacerMoinsPolluer may be mentioned once, in a banner covering at least 7% page.

In the case of advertising or promotional materials produced by a single advertiser, only one of the mandatory messages must be broadcast, accompanied by the entry #SeDéplacerMoinsPolluer for the entire document. In this case, the broadcast message and the mention #SeDéplacerMoinsPolluer appear in 1è or last page of the document and are in a banner covering at least 7% page.

On-line public communication services (internet)

For advertisements distributed via the Internet, the mandatory broadcast message must be accessible when the advertisement is viewed.

Its presentation respects the rules and practices of good practice regularly defined by the profession, and in particular the rules laid down by the Authority for the Professional Regulation of Advertising (ARPP).

ARPP Code: Ethics Framework for Advertising Expression

Advertising Regulatory Authority (ARPP)

Pour en savoir plus

Other obligations depend on the type of advertising:

  • For advertisements that run as video, the mandatory broadcast message shall be included in an easily identifiable fixed horizontal space separate from any other mandatory information. The message must be held for a period that allows it to be read in full.
  • For advertisements that run asstill image, the mandatory broadcast message shall be placed in a horizontal space reserved for that text covering at least 7% the advertising surface, easily identifiable and distinct from any other mandatory particulars.
  • For Ads Only sound, the mandatory broadcast message shall be delivered immediately after the advertisement.

The mandatory message must always be supplemented by the signature #SeDéplacerMoinsPolluer.

Warning  

Failure to do so shall be sanctioned by a fine of €50,000 by diffusion. In the event of repeated infringement, the amount of the fine may be increased to €100,000.

CO2 label

All media for the distribution of visual commercial communications (television, cinema, online advertisements including social and print networks) must now show the following:

  • Level of CO emissions2 of the presented car
  • Emission class (A to G)

These items must appear in a legible, visible display of a label.

Advertising relating to the sale or promoting the purchase of new passenger cars shall be authorized until December 31, 2027.

From 1er january 2028, advertising the sale or promotion of the purchase of certain new passenger cars will be forbidden.

The cars affected by the ban will be those emitting more than 123 grams of CO2 per kilometer according to the WLTP standard, which is equivalent to more than 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer according to the NEDC standard.