France confirms PFAS polluter‑pay fee from September 2026

The French government has issued a decree activating a levy on industrial discharges of per‑ and poly‑fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) starting 1 September 2026. The fee, introduced by the anti‑PFAS law passed in February 2025, is set at €100 for every 100 g of PFAS released into water. The decree lists 28 PFAS compounds, including the widely detected trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), that will be subject to the charge.

The levy’s tax base is the mass of PFAS present in water discharged during a calendar year, measured either by continuous self‑monitoring or periodic sampling. An 80 % abatement applies to firms that install water‑treatment systems, a provision that environmental MP Nicolas Thierry has criticised as a “regulatory gift” that could leave taxpayers bearing higher water‑bill costs if emissions do not actually decline.

The fee’s implementation was postponed from an initial March 2026 start to September 2026 to ensure legal certainty after the list of monitored substances was expanded. The measure aims to finance the depollution of French water supplies, which serve millions of residents, by shifting part of the cost to the polluters of these persistent chemicals.