On June 29, 2021, the Lyon Administrative Court of Appeal upheld the annulment of the marketing authorization (AAM) for Round Up Pro 360, issued on March 6, 2017 by the French National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES). It thus rejected the appeals lodged by Bayer and ANSES against the lower court judgment.

In an order dated January 15, 2019, the Lyon Administrative Court recognized that Roundup was probably carcinogenic. In this sense, the AAM had been issued in contradiction with the precautionary principle, and had to be annulled.

The Administrative Court of Appeal recalls that if an active substance of a plant protection product is approved by the Community authorities, the national authority, seized of an application for marketing authorization for such a product, has a discretionary power to determine whether there is detailed evidence to support the hypothesis of a risk of serious and irreversible damage to the environment, or of damage to the environment likely to cause serious harm to health, which would justify application of the precautionary principle, despite the remaining uncertainties as to its reality and scope in the light of current scientific knowledge.

In this case, ANSES authorized the marketing of Roundup Pro 360 as a resale product of another plant protection product of the same composition, Typhon, whose evaluations predated 2013. It therefore did not carry out a new evaluation of the preparation. However, on the date of the authorization in dispute, all the studies were of such a nature as to support the hypothesis of a risk of damage to the environment, linked to the use of glyphosate but also to the combination of glyphosate with other co-formulants in preparations, likely to cause serious harm to health, on the date of the disputed decision, and justified, despite the remaining uncertainties as to its reality and scope in the current state of scientific knowledge, the application of the precautionary principle.

ANSES therefore failed to comply with the precautionary principle set out in Article 5 of the Charter of the Environment, in the absence of an assessment procedure, and irrespective of the precautionary measures imposed.

Following this ruling, CRIIGEN, considering that all glyphosate-based herbicides should be banned for the same reasons, referred the matter to the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Agriculture, Environment and Health on January 22, 2019. In the absence of a response, the association asked the Administrative Court of Melun to order the withdrawal of all marketing authorities for glyphosate-based herbicides. No further action has been taken.