Message 001
Communication from the Commission - TRIS/(2026) 2014
Directive (EU) 2015/1535
Notification: 2026/0396/FR
Notification of a draft text from a Member State
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MSG: 20262014.EN
1. MSG 001 IND 2026 0396 FR EN 24-07-2026 FR NOTIF
2. France
3A. Ministères économiques et financiers
Direction générale des entreprises
SCIDE/SQUALPI - Pôle Normalisation et réglementation des produits
Bât. Sieyès -Teledoc 143
61, Bd Vincent Auriol
75703 PARIS Cedex 13
3B. Ministère de la Santé, des Familles, de l'Autonomie et des Personnes handicapées
Direction générale de la santé
Sous-direction de la santé des populations et de la prévention des maladies chroniques
Bureau de la prévention des addictions
14, Avenue Duquesne
75007 Paris Cedex 07
4. 2026/0396/FR - S00S - HEALTH, MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
5. Provisions on protecting public health and vulnerable groups from the misuse of nitrous oxide.
6. Nitrous oxide
7.
8. This notification concerns certain provisions of the draft bill to provide immediate responses to incidents that disrupt public order, security and the peace and quiet of our fellow citizens.
The bill provides for a ban, applicable to members of the public, on the possession, transport, transfer or supply of nitrous oxide, as well as any product specifically intended to facilitate its inhalation for psychoactive purposes by members of the public, with effect from 1 February 2027, in order to comply with the schedule for the entry into force of the classification of this substance under the REACH/CLP Regulation. This measure is intended to restrict the use of nitrous oxide only to the categories of professionals listed by decree. It addresses the worrying rise in the misuse of nitrous oxide for recreational purposes, particularly among young people, as well as the resulting health risks and public order issues.
The chosen date of entry into force is not due to either a reduction in the public health emergency or a desire to allow a grace period before taking action. This date was chosen exclusively in order to ensure a temporal concordance with the mandatory application, as of 1 February 2027, of the harmonised classification of nitrous oxide under Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures. Nitrous oxide will then be classified as a Category 1B reproductive toxicant. This date also corresponds to the one set out in the draft update to the REACH Regulation published by the Commission. The alignment adopted is therefore one that brings timetables and regulatory provisions into line with one another, with the aim of reducing barriers to free movement. It does not mean that national and European measures have the same content. National measures are specifically designed to tackle the issues of psychoactive substance use, trafficking and public order offences, which justify stricter regulation.
9. The notified provisions are intended to ensure a high level of protection of public health and public safety by reducing the exposure of the general public – and in particular minors and young adults – to the risks associated with the misuse of nitrous oxide. Their aim is to halt the rapid rise in psychoactive substance use, particularly heavy or daily use, which persists and is getting worse despite the restrictions that have been successively introduced since 2021.
These provisions come at a time of rapid transformation of the market and the way in which consumption takes place. The small cartridges originally used have largely been replaced by canisters and cylinders capable of holding several hundred grams, or even several kilograms, of nitrous oxide. In parallel, distribution has shifted to websites, social media, messaging applications and delivery services.
This change significantly reduces the effectiveness of existing regulatory measures, which are based primarily on the purchaser’s age, the point of sale, the size of the packaging and the quantity sold on a particular occasion. It makes it necessary to act also on the holding, transport, distribution channels and traceability of batches.
Such measures shall exclusively pursue public health and safety objectives and shall be justified in the light of Article 36 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
9a. The proposed measures respond to risks objectively identified by national and European health authorities.
The available data show a continuous and exponential increase in cases of poisoning. In 2025, 630 notifications concerning the misuse of nitrous oxide were reported to the Addictovigilance network, a significant increase of more than 20 % compared to 2024. An increase of around 10 % has already been observed in 2024 compared with 2023 (ANSM, Nitrous Oxide Key Figures 2025, 2026). Prior to the recent increase in abuse, nitrous oxide already accounted for 7.4 % of all reports received by the drug surveillance network in 2024 (ANSM, Minutes of the Standing Scientific Committee, Psychotropic Substances, Narcotics and Addictions, October 2025). All regions of France are affected. The health consequences are particularly severe. In 2025, 8 out of 10 reports received relate to serious cases. Addictovigilance centres report addiction situations in about 90 % of the most serious cases, neurological harm in over 80 % of cases, psychiatric disorders in about 15 % of situations and cardiovascular complications in almost 10 % of cases. Around 40 % of reported cases involve serious damage to the spinal cord or peripheral nerves, which may lead to long-term or irreversible consequences (Draft bill to restrict the sale of nitrous oxide to professionals only – Senate, 18 February 2026).
The population in question is particularly young, and the proportion of minors rose significantly in 2025. Minors accounted for 19.4 % in 2025, compared with 12.8 % in 2024 and 9.2 % in 2023, with an average age of 22.
Whilst misuse is no longer a rare occurrence in the general population – with 6.7 % of people aged 18 to 64 reporting that they had tried this substance at some point in their lives in 2023 – this proportion rose to 11.7 % among 18–24-year-olds and 12.5 % among 25–34-year-olds (OFDT, Levels of Illicit Drug Use in France in 2023, June 2024), indicating a particularly high prevalence among young people. In 2024, 5.8 % of sixth-formers reported having tried nitrous oxide (OFDT, EnCLASS 2024, 2026).
The high prevalence of these uses among young people is driven by marketing practices which, despite existing restrictions, seek to increase the attractiveness of the product. The use of brightly coloured containers, attractive packaging formats and sweet flavours (strawberry, banana, exotic fruits, etc.) helps to normalise its consumption. This marketing strategy, modelled on that used for e-cigarettes – the marketing of which is now banned – is amplified by online sales, social media and delivery services.
At the same time, consumption patterns have changed. Nitrous oxide is no longer used solely in a party context: health authorities have noted an increase in regular and heavy use, as well as a rise in self-medication among isolated or vulnerable people. Beyond its health implications, the misuse of nitrous oxide gives rise to public order issues, linked both to the risk of fatal road traffic accidents resulting from the impaired alertness and reaction times caused by its consumption, and to the abandonment of cylinders in public places. The use of nitrous oxide in public places is causing an increasing number of road traffic accidents. In 2025, more than 450 serious road traffic incidents linked to nitrous oxide were recorded, which is forty times more than six years ago (Draft bill to restrict the sale of nitrous oxide to professionals only – Senate, 18 February 2026). The number of court cases in which nitrous oxide is mentioned
9b. The envisaged measures are necessary in pursuit of the objective of protecting public health and have a limited and proportionate impact on the internal market.
In order to minimise the risks of nitrous oxide misuse, a number of restrictive measures have already been introduced in France in stages since 2021: a ban on the sale or supply to minors; a ban on sales in pubs and tobacconists; a requirement to carry a warning on the packaging about the dangers of misuse of the product; limits on the quantities sold to members of the public; and a ban on accessories that facilitate its consumption. Despite these measures, the health figures continued to deteriorate and the market adapted to the restrictions in place. Distribution has largely moved away from traditional channels to websites, social media and messaging services. Home deliveries are organised according to models comparable to those used for the distribution of narcotic drugs.
As a result, significant import and distribution networks have developed, facilitating access to the product despite the successive restrictions that have been introduced.
The main less restrictive measures – health information, quantity limits, restrictions on certain outlets and a ban on certain accessories – have therefore already been implemented, without succeeding in sufficiently reducing the product’s availability or its heavy use. An example of this is the number of infringements detected on the basis of the currently applicable law. The National Directorate of the Judicial Police recorded only 96 offences relating to nitrous oxide in 2025 (Draft bill to restrict the sale of nitrous oxide to professionals only – Senate, 18 February 2026), whilst hospital data, police interventions and seizures indicate a phenomenon on a vastly greater scale.
Under these conditions, no new measures limited solely to the marketing methods appear likely to ensure an equivalent level of protection. This assessment is supported by the measures taken by other Member States facing the same difficulties. Several European countries have adopted, or are considering adopting, similar restrictive measures regarding nitrous oxide, reflecting a convergence of public health assessments at European level regarding the inadequacy of information measures and partial restrictions alone in effectively reducing misuse.
The prohibition on holding, transporting, transferring or offering the product to members of the public is therefore a necessary measure to ensure effective protection of public health against a persistent phenomenon of misuse of the product. Its scope remains limited, since professional uses and other legitimate purposes, such as research, remain permitted. Thus, the measure does not restrict a legitimate use of nitrous oxide, but targets only its misuse for psychoactive purposes, which is devoid of any legally recognised purpose.
This restriction also forms part of a wider European trend towards increasing recognition of the risks associated with nitrous oxide. With effect from 1 February 2027, this substance will be subject to a harmonised classification under the CLP Regulation as a Category 1B reproductive toxicant, which will automatically result in a REACH classification, implying, in principle, a ban on sales to members of the public within the EU, subject to a possible exemption for small quantities. This development of the European framework confirms the necessity of the national measure and contributes to limiting its impact on the internal market.
France has set the same date for the national scheme in order to avoid the successive coexistence of different timetables and to enable operators
9c. The restrictions resulting from the proposed measure are proportionate to the seriousness of the identified risks.
The measure concerning nitrous oxide addresses serious health risks, which can lead to irreversible damage, particularly among young people. The authorities considered that the high level of public health protection sought justified the restriction on its marketing. This measure is all the more proportionate given that the risks associated with nitrous oxide are now recognised at European level and that the behaviour it aims to prevent constitutes a misuse of the product, with no legitimate purpose for the consumer, whilst the resulting health consequences can be particularly serious.
Professional uses and legitimate purposes are not prohibited, and operators have until 1 February 2027 to adapt their practices. The burden placed on legitimate economic activities is therefore limited.
Conversely, a failure to take action would allow a steadily increasing trend in misuse to continue, giving rise to a high risk of serious and potentially irreversible neurological damage, as well as public order disturbances.
In these circumstances, the harm likely to result from the absence of any measure is likely to outweigh the constraints imposed by the restriction on its marketing.
10. References: There are no references.
11. Yes
12. The request to invoke the urgent procedure is based on the recent emergence of a wave of poisoning cases of a scale and severity that could not reasonably have been anticipated on the basis of the data previously available.
The severity of the situation results in the first place from the continuous and accelerated increase in reports of serious cases related to the misuse of nitrous oxide. In 2025, 630 notifications concerning the misuse of nitrous oxide were reported to the Addictovigilance network, a significant increase of more than 20 % compared to 2024. An increase of around 10 % has already been observed in 2024 compared with 2023 (ANSM, Nitrous Oxide Key Figures 2025, 2026).
The available consolidated data show a rise in the number of serious reports and a significant increase in the number of minors affected. In 2025, about 80 % of the notifications correspond to serious clinical situations. More than 80 % of serious cases involve neurological harm, sometimes irreversible (Senate, Draft bill to restrict the sale of nitrous oxide to professionals only, 18 February 2026).
Secondly, the fact that this phenomenon is spreading to younger age groups is a particularly worrying sign: in 2025, 19.4 % of reports concerned minors, compared with 12.8 % in 2024 and 9.2 % in 2023. The average age of subjects has also decreased: 21.7 years in 2025, compared with 22.2 years in 2024 and 22.4 years in 20
13. No
14. No
15. No
16.
TBT aspects: No
SPS aspects: No
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European Commission
Contact point Directive (EU) 2015/1535
email: grow-dir2015-1535-central@ec.europa.eu
