French Court Suspends Copper Fungicide Limits

A French administrative court has suspended restrictions on copper-based fungicides used in vineyards and ordered the national food safety agency, Anses, to review the market authorizations within two months, a ruling that could ease pressure on wine growers facing heavy losses from mildew.

The decision, issued by the administrative court in Melun on March 31 and made public this week, came after several companies and major industry groups challenged Anses over measures imposed in July 2025 on more than 20 copper formulations. The agency had withdrawn 22 market authorizations and sharply tightened the conditions for two others, including bans on tank mixing, a minimum seven-day interval between applications, wider buffer zones near waterways and homes, and a permanent vegetated strip inside the no-spray zone.

Copper remains one of the main tools available to both conventional and organic growers against downy mildew, a disease that can devastate vines in wet seasons. The dispute has taken on added urgency after difficult harvests in 2024 and 2025, when some growers said they had to spray copper 15 or 16 times to protect their vines. Industry groups warned that the restrictions would leave French vineyards with too few options just as the 2026 season was beginning.

The case brought together an unusual coalition. Five companies filed emergency legal challenges, including two before the Melun court. They were joined by the national confederation of wine appellations, France’s organic farming federation, the national wine committee, France Vin Bio and independent growers’ groups. Their argument was not only that the restrictions were too severe, but also that they created a competitive disadvantage for French producers compared with rivals in other European Union countries.

At the hearing in March, lawyers for the company Cosaco argued that Anses had relied on theoretical risks to workers even though copper absorption through the skin is considered negligible. They also said the agency had completed its review of Cosaco’s file as early as 2022 but did not communicate its conclusions until 2025, leaving no meaningful time to respond. That, they said, violated the principle of due process.

Anses defended its position by saying that additional data submitted by the company arrived too late and that the studies provided were not the right ones. The agency also argued that other copper products remained available while their evaluations were pending in Italy, which serves as rapporteur state for many of those products under European procedures.

The court was not persuaded. It found there was serious doubt about Anses’s assessment of risks to agricultural workers and pointed to what it described as a very significant reduction in the supply of copper-based solutions for vineyards. The judges suspended the restrictions and ordered Anses to reinvestigate the applications for vineyard use within two months.

For growers, especially those working under organic rules where copper is often one of the few permitted fungicides against mildew, the ruling removes an immediate regulatory burden but does not end uncertainty. The agency can still revisit its decisions after reexamination, and any new ruling could again reshape access to one of viticulture’s most important crop-protection tools.