France's PFAS law: what has been banned since January 1, 2026, and what is still waiting on a decree

The decree that makes the French PFAS ban workable was signed on December 28, 2025, four days before the ban took effect. Until then, companies knew what law 2025-188 of February 27, 2025 prohibited, but not the concentration at which a trace becomes an infringement.

PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a family of several thousand synthetic chemicals prized for repelling water, grease, and heat, and notorious for barely degrading at all. In cosmetics they show up in long-wear makeup and waterproof formulas. In textiles, in stain and rain protection. France is the first EU country to ban them by product family rather than substance by substance.

Three product families banned since January 1, 2026

Article 1 of the law prohibits the manufacture, import, export, and placing on the market, paid or free, of three categories of products containing PFAS:

• cosmetics, the whole category, with no carve-out by product type;
• ski wax, the niche that put PFAS on the agenda of French ski resorts;
• clothing textiles, footwear, and their waterproofing agents.

The clothing category carries the exemptions. Decree 2025-1376 of December 28, 2025 spares personal protective equipment covered by EU regulation 2016/425, gear designed for national defense and civil security, the waterproofing agents used to re-treat that equipment, and clothing or footwear made of at least 20% post-consumer recycled material, provided the PFAS sit only in the recycled fraction.

Good to know: products manufactured before January 1, 2026 get a sell-off window of twelve months. From January 1, 2027, selling or exporting that stock is prohibited too. A warehouse count dated before the deadline is the document to keep.

The thresholds that separate a trace from an infringement

A zero-PFAS product does not exist analytically, so the decree sets three residual concentration thresholds below which a product stays legal:

These are the same three numbers as the class-wide restriction proposal filed at the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), which means a test report built for the French ban should remain usable when the EU text lands. For a buyer, the practical consequence is that a supplier attestation saying "PFAS-free" proves nothing: what counts is a test result against these thresholds, with the method and the date on it.

In 2030, the ban extends to all textiles

On January 1, 2030 the prohibition reaches every textile product, upholstery and furnishing included. The decree already names the exemptions: industrial technical textiles, textiles needed for essential uses with no available substitute, certain medical textiles, and the same 20% recycled-content exception as in 2026.

Discharges: a trajectory set by law, a fee still waiting on its decree

The law does not stop at products. Article 2 commits France to a national trajectory of progressive reduction of industrial PFAS discharges into water, with the objective of ending them within five years of the law's promulgation, so by February 2030. Article 4 creates a fee on discharges for industrial sites subject to environmental authorization: 100 euros per 100 grams of PFAS discharged, once annual discharges exceed 100 grams.

Both measures need implementing texts, and as of February 1, 2026 neither the decree setting the trajectory nor the one listing the substances covered by the fee had been published. What has landed is the drinking-water side: decree 2025-1287 of December 22, 2025 adds 20 PFAS to mandatory tap-water monitoring from January 1, 2026, with two more, TFA and 6:2 FTSA, joining on January 1, 2027.

Brussels is months behind, not out of the picture

The French ban does not replace EU law, it front-runs it. Regulation 2024/2462, adopted in September 2024, restricts PFHxA and related substances under REACH (the EU regulation on the registration, evaluation, authorization, and restriction of chemicals) and applies to cosmetics, clothing, and footwear for the general public from October 10, 2026. And the class-wide restriction proposed in January 2023 by Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden was still being evaluated by ECHA's scientific committees as of early 2026, with no adopted opinion yet.

For a company selling in several EU countries, the sequence matters more than the debate: the French thresholds apply now, the PFHxA limits in October 2026, and the class-wide restriction on a date nobody can yet write down.

So treat the French law as the rehearsal for the European one. Test your at-risk references against the 25 ppb, 250 ppb, and 50 ppm thresholds, date your stock inventory, and get supplier declarations that name a method and a result rather than a promise.

FAQ

Which products are banned in France since January 1, 2026?

Cosmetics, ski wax, clothing textiles, footwear, and their waterproofing agents containing PFAS above residual thresholds, under French law 2025-188. Protective equipment, defense and civil-security gear, and clothing with at least 20% post-consumer recycled content are exempt.

Is a product with trace amounts of PFAS illegal in France?

No. Decree 2025-1376 sets residual thresholds below which a product remains legal: 25 ppb for a single PFAS, 250 ppb for the sum of targeted PFAS, and 50 ppm for total PFAS including polymers.

Can stock manufactured before 2026 still be sold?

Yes, for twelve months. Products manufactured before January 1, 2026 can be sold or exported until December 31, 2026. After that date, selling or exporting them is prohibited.

Does the French PFAS law replace the EU restriction?

No. It applies only in France and runs ahead of EU law. The EU's PFHxA restriction applies to cosmetics, clothing, and footwear from October 10, 2026, and the broader class-wide PFAS restriction was still under evaluation at ECHA as of early 2026.