Advertising CBD products in France: what the law allows

A flower intended to be smoked falls under the chapter of the public health code devoted to plant-based smoking products other than tobacco, defined in article L. 3514-1 as tobacco-free plant-based products that can be consumed through combustion.

Article L. 3514-3 is the one to read in full. The labelling of packaging units, of any outer packaging and of the product itself may not include any element suggesting vitalising, energising, curative, rejuvenating, natural or organic properties, or beneficial effects on health or lifestyle.

Two practical consequences often go unnoticed. The words "natural" and "organic" are targeted in the same way as a health claim. And under paragraph II of the same article, the prohibition extends to names, product or service brands and figurative signs: it covers not only the descriptive text, but the commercial identity itself.

Article L. 3514-4 also requires a health warning. The order of 19 May 2016 sets its exact wording for these products, "Smoking this product harms your health.", and its surface area, 30% of the front face and 30% of the back face of the packaging.

A necessary point of rigour on penalties, because confusion is common: article L. 3515-3, which provides for a fine of 100,000 euros and 200,000 euros for a repeat offence, covers failure to display the health warning required by article L. 3514-4. It does not cover article L. 3514-3 on claims. The latter are punished through other channels, set out below.

The mechanism is autonomous and formidable. Article L. 5111-1 of the public health code defines a medicine as any substance or composition presented as having curative or preventive properties with regard to human diseases.

The trigger is therefore the seller's discourse, not the product's composition. Presenting an oil or a flower as acting on anxiety, osteoarthritis or insomnia is enough to qualify it as a medicine by presentation, and therefore as a medicine without marketing authorisation. Our article on mandatory labelling statements details what may legitimately appear on a label.

On the food side, the question no longer even arises. The European regulation on nutrition and health claims requires that any claim carried by a foodstuff be authorised and entered in the European register kept by the Commission. No health claim has been authorised for cannabidiol. And the Ministry of Agriculture reiterated, in a statement of 20 May 2026, that foodstuffs containing CBD are not authorised under the novel food regulation and must be withdrawn from the market. Our guide to the applicable regulations traces this shift.

Article L. 121-1 of the consumer code prohibits unfair commercial practices, unfairness being assessed, for consumers who are vulnerable by reason of their age or credulity, against the average discernment of that group.

Article L. 121-2 classifies as misleading any practice based on false claims relating in particular to the substantial qualities of the goods, their composition, their conditions of use, the expected properties and results, as well as the results of tests carried out. References to analyses are therefore also within scope.

The penalties appear in article L. 132-2: two years' imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 euros, an amount that may be raised proportionally to 10% of average annual turnover. The decisive point for an online seller appears in the final paragraph: where the offence is committed through the use of an online public communication service, the penalties are raised to five years' imprisonment and a fine of 750,000 euros. For an e-commerce site, it is this aggravated level that applies.

Article L. 3421-4 of the public health code punishes with five years' imprisonment and a 75,000-euro fine the incitement to use narcotics, including incitement to use substances presented as having the effects of narcotics. The penalties rise to seven years and 100,000 euros when the acts are committed near an educational establishment.

The report published in December 2023 with the support of MILDECA explicitly applies this text to CBD marketing: the use, in advertising or in shop windows, of terms evoking the world of recreational cannabis, of the space-cake, grinder or joint-holder kind, amounts to an incitement to use narcotic products and can be punished under criminal law.

The same report gives the measure of the problem across 33 of the best-ranked French sites: only half restricted sales to adults, and only a third stated that the product is not a medicine. Claims targeting serious pathologies were recorded there.

Unlike tobacco and alcohol, no ban on sales to minors specific to these products was in force at the date of this article. An amendment tabled in the Senate in May 2026 proposed introducing one for plant-based smoking products other than tobacco.

We report it as a proposal, not as law in force: we have not verified its adoption. Restricting sales to adults therefore remains, to date, a matter of commercial policy, a subject covered in our article on the legal age. The other parameters are covered in our articles on opening a shop and on the checks to run before buying wholesale.

Can a CBD product be described as natural or organic?

Not on the labelling of a plant-based smoking product. Article L. 3514-3 of the public health code expressly prohibits suggesting natural or organic properties, in the same way as curative properties or beneficial effects on health, and this prohibition extends to brands and figurative signs.

What penalty does an online seller risk for a misleading claim?

Article L. 132-2 of the consumer code provides for two years' imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 euros, raised to five years and 750,000 euros where the offence is committed through the use of an online public communication service. The fine can also be calculated as a percentage of turnover.

Is selling CBD to minors prohibited in France?

No specific prohibition was in force at the date of this article, unlike for tobacco and alcohol. An amendment to that effect was tabled in the Senate in May 2026, but we have not verified its adoption and it cannot be presented as applicable law.