CRIIGEN v. ANSES Reference : 1704067, 19LY01017, 19LY01031 Complaint date : May 30, 2017 Status : Final judgment Place of jurisdiction : France, Lyon Plaintiffs types : Environmental NGOs Plaintiffs names : CRIIGEN Defendants : ANSES (Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety), Bayer Lawyers for Health and Environmental Justice : Corinne Lepage Case nature : Administrative Type(s), Product(s), Active substance(s) : Roundup, Glyphosate, POEA, Herbicide Requests : Annul the decision of March 6, 2017 by which ANSES authorized the marketing of Roundup Pro 360 by SAS Monsanto; Refer a question to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a preliminary ruling on the validity of implementing regulations (EU) 2016/1056 of June 29, 2016 and 2016/1313 of August 1, 2016, both amending implementing regulation (EU) n°540/2011 as regards the conditions for approval of the active substance glyphosate. Name of the Court : Administrative Court of Appeals of Lyon, France Jurisdiction level : Decision date : June 29, 2021 Decision nature : Positive Decision content : The marketing authorization decision is annulled, without the need to refer the preliminary questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Legal basis : Court Ruling : Link to the ruling Summary : On June 29, 2021, the Lyon Administrative Court of Appeal upheld the annulment of the marketing authorization for Round Up Pro 360, issued on March 6, 2017 by ANSES, thereby rejecting the complaints filed by Bayer and ANSES against the first-instance judgment of January 15, 2019. 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. Scientific references : EFSA, “EFSA explains risk assessment: Glyphosate” (November 12, 2015) IARC Working Group on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans. Some Organophosphate Insecticides and Herbicides. Lyon (FR): International Agency for Research on Cancer; 2017. PMID: 31829533. Related links : Trial decision (2019) Letter from Cabinet Huglo Lepage to the French Minister of Agriculture requesting that Roundup approvals be revoked following the first-instance decision Press article, Euroactiv (January 16, 2019) Press realease, CRIIGEN (June 30, 2021)