France’s Triman and Info-tri: 3 Real Compliance Boundaries—Le Point Vert Ban, Size Tiers, and Multi-Component Printing

In August 2026, a French fragrance customer approached us with a clear brief: “Print Triman on the box, use yellow for Info-tri, and make the size 12mm.”

Three elements of that brief would have caused the entire job to be reworked on the same day. First, Triman must be black, with an exception only when there is a “major visibility impediment.” If the customer’s 12mm refers to the width of the Info-tri label box, it has no bearing on Triman. If it refers to the Triman symbol itself, the mark cannot simply be enlarged because Triman has its own proportions. Second, yellow Info-tri is incorrect: yellow means “non-glass,” while green means glass. The customer’s fragrance bottle is glass, but the box is paper. Printing the entire box in yellow treats the paper box as non-glass and the glass bottle as non-glass, so both are wrong. Third, whether 12mm is suitable depends on the area of the packaging’s largest face, not on how large the customer wants the label to be.

A fourth issue is even more consequential: the product consists of an outer box and an inner bottle. When Info-tri is printed on the outer box, it must include the classification information for both components.

This article addresses three matters: the logic behind France’s labeling system and why Le Point Vert was prohibited, how the size tiers are calculated, and how to print labels for multi-component products.

First Boundary: Le Point Vert Is Not “No Longer Required”—It Is “Prohibited”

First, it is important to establish the legal basis. Article 17 of France’s AGEC law, the law against waste and for a circular economy, established recycling-labeling obligations for household-product packaging under Article L. 541-9-3 of the Environmental Code. The detailed rules are implemented through Decree No. 2021-835 of June 29, 2021.

The decree made two changes directly relevant to printers:

• Le Point Vert was prohibited from use. This was not a change from mandatory to optional; it became forbidden to print. Retaining the symbol on packaging sold in France became a violation. Le Point Vert had previously appeared on nearly all French packaging and was one of the world’s most widely printed individual symbols. Its immediate abolition means that large quantities of print plates carrying the symbol became obsolete.
• Triman became a mandatory label, and it must be printed whether or not the packaging is recyclable. This point is often misunderstood: Triman communicates that the product must be handled according to sorting rules, not that the product itself is recyclable. Consequently, even a composite package that is not recyclable must carry the Triman symbol.

The timeline should be recorded accurately because it directly determines how much existing packaging the customer may still sell:

A useful position to take with customers is: old packaging produced before September 9, 2022 may continue to be sold until sold out, because the law does not impose a destruction deadline for existing inventory. Therefore, customers do not need to rush to discard Le Point Vert stock produced in the first half of 2022. However, no new packaging carrying Le Point Vert may be produced from now on. When accepting an order, printers should ask whether it is a replenishment of 2022 inventory or newly produced packaging. This single question can save the cost of an entire set of plates.

There is also a scope question. Triman and Info-tri obligations mainly apply to products for household use, known as produits destinés au foyer, and to product categories covered by the extended producer responsibility, or REP, system. Glass beverage containers are expressly exempt. Packaging for ordinary consumer goods exported to France generally falls within scope.

Second Boundary: Size Tiers Are More Complicated Than “How Large Is It?”

This is the tier printers are most likely to misapply because the criterion is not packaging volume but the area of the packaging’s largest face. The tiers also interact with the condition of whether the package includes other documents.

The critical interaction is in the first tier: if the packaging includes an instruction leaflet, card, or any other paper document, digital provision is no longer available. An 8 cm² package with an instruction leaflet must therefore carry the printed labels, while an 8 cm² package without one may use only digital provision.

Cylindrical and spherical packaging follow a separate set of rules. If the surface area of the largest face is below 20 cm², the information may be provided entirely digitally. If the largest face is between 20 – 40 cm², Triman must be printed on the package, but Info-tri may be provided digitally.

Another point that is easily overlooked is that “maximale face” in French practice refers to the largest face when the package is unfolded and laid flat. It is not the face seen from the front, nor the largest projection in a three-view drawing. For a 300×200×80mm carton, is the flattened largest face 600×200mm when the side panel is unfolded, or 300×200mm when only the front is considered? In practice, the calculation uses the largest single face obtainable by unfolding the package. This is one of the most common sources of disagreement when checking dimensions with customers: the customer measures the front, while we measure the unfolded area, and the difference can reverse the final tier. Our current procedure is therefore: ask the customer for the packaging dieline, either as a six-panel layout or with the largest face clearly marked, and do not accept descriptions such as “approximately this many centimeters.”

The labels also have placement requirements. The Triman symbol and Info-tri label box must appear at least once on a packaging surface, be clearly visible, and must not be obscured by other elements. A symbol compressed beneath a fold, half covered by sealing tape, or printed with insufficient contrast against a dark background may make the packaging non-compliant.

Third Boundary: Printing for Multi-Component Products Hides in the Requirement to Cover Everything on the Outer Package

This boundary requires the most communication. The rule is: for multi-component products, Info-tri may be printed only on the outer package, provided that the Info-tri label on the outer package covers the classification information for every component. Alternatively, the inner and outer packages may each carry the Info-tri information that applies to them.

Translated into practical printing work:

• Option A: Print everything on the outer package. The Info-tri label box on the outer box must list the classification labels for both the inner bottle and the outer box, connected with a + sign. This is a single label covering the complete set.
• Option B: Print each package separately. The outer box carries its own Info-tri label, and the inner bottle carries its own. This requires more work, but each label is simpler.

Our default is Option A, subject to one condition that must be recorded on the production sheet: the outer box layout must have enough space for one label covering two components. If the product has many components, such as four fragrance bottles, an outer box, and an inner tray, the Option A label box becomes very large. In France’s Info-tri label box format, the box becomes longer as the number of components increases. The number of components must therefore be supplied during the quotation stage, because the artwork cannot be revised easily later.

The second communication-intensive issue is color. The rule is: green represents glass, and yellow represents non-glass. If the packaging contains both glass and non-glass components, both colors must appear in the label box, each corresponding to its respective component.

Customers often say: “Green looks better, so let’s use green.”

Our standard response is: “Green and yellow are not brand colors in France; they are classification codes. Green means glass, and yellow means non-glass, so I cannot change them. This package contains both a glass bottle and a paper box, so both colors are required. We will color-code and arrange the label by component.”

The third issue is that Triman must be black. Other colors are permitted only where a “major visibility impediment” exists. Any request for a gold or white Triman symbol must first pass this condition.

There is also an alternative route to understand: Triman and Info-tri may be replaced by an EU-level harmonized label or a mandatory label already enforced in another Member State, under the principle of mutual recognition, provided that the replacement is mandatory and communicates the same information. However, no unified EU-wide packaging classification label currently exists, so this route cannot currently be used. Explaining this can prevent unnecessary exchanges with customers about alternatives such as using a German label.

Three Items to Request Before Accepting a French Order

In practical terms, we need three items before accepting a French packaging order:

• First: the packaging dieline and the area of the largest face in cm². This determines the labeling tier and is the foundation for all subsequent work. The customer must provide the dieline; approximate size descriptions are not acceptable.
• Second: a complete component list showing the material of each component, such as glass, paper, plastic, metal, or paper composite. This list determines the Info-tri colors and component icons, as well as whether one label will cover the entire set or each package will be labeled separately.
• Third: confirmation of whether the packaging includes other documents, such as an instruction leaflet, card, or promotional card. This yes-or-no answer directly determines whether a small package can use the digital-provision exemption. Customers often forget that they have placed a card inside the box.

If a customer says, “We have never been asked to do this,” our response is: “Le Point Vert could no longer be printed after March 9, 2023. Your old 2022 packaging may continue to be sold until sold out, but every new batch must carry Triman. This is not a new requirement; it is a replacement. I can arrange the label specifications for you, but you need to provide the component list and dieline.”

For internal customer communication, the penalty is also worth noting. Administrative fines for violating labeling obligations may reach 3,000 euros for an individual and 15,000 euros for a legal entity, under Article L. 541-9-4 of the Environmental Code. This amount is normally two orders of magnitude higher than the cost of printing one set of labels, so we list the label artwork as mandatory rather than optional in our quotations.

Further Reading

• The Real Impact of the New European PPWR Regulations on Printers in 2026: 3 Categories—EU recyclability performance ratings run alongside the labeling obligations under French domestic law.
• 4 Categories of Packaging Compliance Requirements for EU Exports: REACH / EC 1935/2004 / 94/62/EC / EN 13427—chemical compliance at the material level is a separate track from French labeling.
• Germany’s VerpackDG and LUCID Registration: 3 Real Boundaries—comparing the neighboring registration system helps clarify the distinction between registration and labeling.
• 3 Common Printing Errors Involving the GB 18455 Recycling Symbol and Triangle—explains why France’s labels and China’s triangular symbol cannot replace one another.
• Japan’s Identification Marking: 3 Real Boundaries—another market where label specifications are defined down to the millimeter.