New Law on COVID-19 Vaccination Pass

At a glance

• UPDATE: The vaccination pass will enter into force on 24 January.

On 16 January 2022, a "Vaccination Pass" law was passed by the French Parliament. The law will enter into force in the following days. On 20 January 2021, it was confirmed that the law will enter into force on 24 January.

The vaccination pass can only be obtained by those who are fully vaccinated or who have a COVID-19 recovery certificate of less than six months. Where the vaccination pass is required, COVID-19 screening tests, whether PCR or antigenic, will not be sufficient.

Where is the vaccination pass required?

The vaccination pass will be needed to access places where the sanitary pass was already required (such as many establishments open to the public, with the exception of health establishments and services, religious places and journeys from the continent to Corsica by boat or plane). The vaccination pass will be mandatory to access professional fairs, seminars, bars, restaurants, cinemas, shopping centres of more than 20,000 m2, but also to use certain transport, such as trains / TGV, domestic aircraft, buses, coaches and carpooling. To travel by these means, the law specifies that non-vaccinated persons must provide proof of a "compelling family or health reason" and a negative test.

Employees in these sectors will also all need to have a vaccination pass.

Additionally, the vaccination pass only concerns people aged 16 or over. For those between 12 and 15, the sanitary pass remains in force; they don’t need the vaccination pass to access leisure activities, restaurants and bars, fairs or interregional public transport.

The vaccination pass will be implemented gradually. Therefore, a pass will be temporarily issued to people who have not been fully vaccinated, but are on a vaccination scheme (i.e., with at least one dose), as well as to people who have not yet received their booster dose seven months after their last dose. Until such time as these people reach a complete vaccination schedule, they will be able to present a negative test result instead of the vaccine pass.

Moreover, the penalties have been increased:

• Presenting a pass belonging to another person and passing on a pass to another person for a fraudulent use will be punishable on the first offence by a fixed fine of EUR 1,000, compared with the current EUR 135.
• The possession of several fake passes will be punishable by five years' imprisonment and a fine of EUR 75,000.
• On the condition that the person commits to enter into the vaccination programme, there may be no penalty for a fake pass.