France E-Scooter Laws: EDPM Rules, Age Limits, and Fines (2026)

This article is general information about e-scooter (EDPM) laws in France and is not legal advice. For a dispute over a fine, an accident, or an insurance claim, consult a French avocat or your insurer, or check the current official text at service-public.gouv.fr. Information last verified on 23 July 2026.

France regulates e-scooters under a single legal category, the EDPM (engin de déplacement personnel motorisé), rather than treating them as bicycles or mopeds. The rules cover where you can ride, the minimum age, insurance, and what happens if a device is modified to go faster than the law allows.

The legal position

What counts as an EDPM

Décret n° 2019-1082 du 23 octobre 2019 created the EDPM category: a vehicle with no seat (gyropodes may have a saddle), built for one person, with no cargo capacity, a non-thermal motor, and a maximum construction speed between 6 and 25 km/h. A standard trottinette électrique falls squarely inside this definition, and the category also covers gyropodes, hoverboards, and similar personal mobility devices.

The EDPM rules sit in arts. R412-43-1 through R412-43-4 of the Code de la route (Section 6 bis, Chapter II). That text was last substantially touched by Décret n° 2023-848 du 31 août 2023 (in force 1 September 2023) and Décret n° 2024-1074 du 27 novembre 2024 (in force 30 November 2024), which restructured art. R412-43-3 into numbered paragraphs without changing the substance of the age or single-rider rules.

Minimum age: 14

The original 2019 decree set the EDPM minimum age at 12. Décret n° 2023-848 du 31 août 2023 raised it to 14, and art. R412-43-3 as it stands today still reads that any EDPM rider must be at least fourteen years old. An adult who lets, or accompanies, a rider under 14 can be fined under a 4th-class contravention.

Where you can ride

Inside a built-up area (agglomération), a cycle lane or cycle path is mandatory wherever one exists. Where there is none, the fallback is a road with a speed limit of 50 km/h or less, ridden single file rather than two abreast; pedestrian areas are allowed only under specific conditions, and paved shoulders are permitted.

Outside a built-up area, EDPM riding is prohibited except on green ways (voies vertes) and cycle paths. Sidewalks are off-limits by default anywhere in France; a mayor can authorize riding on a specific sidewalk at walking pace where it does not disturb pedestrians, but that authorization has to exist for that stretch of pavement, it is not a general right.

A mayor can also authorize EDPM riding on roads with a speed limit up to 80 km/h, but only together with mandatory protective gear: an attached helmet, a high-visibility or retroreflective vest, supplementary non-blinding lighting, and day and night position lights. Outside that narrow, mayor-authorized case, French law does not impose a general helmet requirement on EDPM riders.

One rider, no towing

Art. R412-43-2 bans pushing or pulling a load, and bans being towed by another vehicle; violating it is a 2nd-class contravention. Art. R412-43-3 separately limits an EDPM to a single rider, since these devices are not built with passenger seating; carrying a second person is a 4th-class contravention.

Insurance

Art. L211-1 of the Code des assurances sets France's general compulsory civil liability insurance obligation. It defines the vehicles this applies to in deliberately broad, technology-neutral terms, as any self-propelled land vehicle able to move under its own mechanical power without running on rails (motorized wheelchairs used solely for a disabled person's mobility are expressly carved out). EDPM devices are not named article by article, but insurers and the wider legal commentary consistently read this broad definition as covering every trottinette électrique, so an owner needs a civil liability policy in place before riding, the same way a moped or car owner does.

Reports describing enforcement of this obligation cite a fine of up to €3,750 for riding uninsured, alongside device confiscation and a possible driving licence suspension. That figure is consistent across several secondary sources rather than a specific penalty article confirmed directly on Légifrance, so treat it as the reported consequence rather than a fixed statutory number tied to one citation.

Modifying a device beyond 25 km/h

Once a device's construction or unlocked speed goes over the EDPM's 25 km/h ceiling, whether by tampering (débridage) or by design, it no longer meets the definition in the 2019 decree and stops being an EDPM at all. Consumer and insurance sources consistently describe the practical result as falling under the ordinary moped (cyclomoteur) regime instead: registration (immatriculation) at the préfecture, type approval, a permis AM (the former BSR), moped-grade insurance rather than the lighter EDPM civil liability cover, and mandatory helmet and gloves. No single Code de la route article states this reclassification in so many words, but it follows directly from the verified EDPM definition, and a rider planning to unlock a device should expect to be treated as riding an unregistered, uninsured moped rather than an EDPM.

Rental e-scooters and the Paris ban

Paris held a referendum in April 2023 in which roughly 90 percent of participants voted to end shared e-scooter rental in the city. The three operators then running fleets there, Lime, Tier, and Dott, were required to withdraw from Paris from 1 September 2023. That decision affects only the free floating rental business model. It did not change the underlying Code de la route rules above, so a privately owned e-scooter remains just as legal (or illegal) to ride in Paris today as it is anywhere else in France; rental status and private ownership are separate questions, and a Paris resident's own e-scooter was never part of the referendum.

Penalties and fines

French law does not have a single "e-scooter fine." Each offence carries its own contravention class and forfait (fixed-penalty) amount, and some go straight to court rather than a fixed fine.

These figures reflect the September 2023 tightening reported by Cerema and corroborated by the Sénat exchange cited below; a reader facing an actual notice should confirm the current forfait amount with the issuing authority or a lawyer, since fixed-penalty amounts can be revised. France's ordinary drink and drug driving framework also applies across vehicle types; readers wanting the specific alcohol thresholds and penalties that French law sets can see RecordingLaw's guide to France's drink driving laws.

Enforcement in practice

Enforcement patterns do not change what the law says, and they are not permission to ignore it. What follows is what official sources actually document, not a guess about how strictly any given town polices EDPM riders.

A 2025 Sénat question from Sénateur Olivier Paccaud, answered by the Minister of the Interior, confirmed a specific and documented gap: the NATINF nomenclature that French police and prosecutors use to charge contraventions has no code that allows a fine against a rider under 13 for the minimum-age violation, because minors under 13 lack penal responsibility for contraventions under French law. Officers can still stop and warn an under-13 rider, and the Minister said the Interior Ministry would evaluate legal grounds for seizing such a device, but as of this Sénat exchange there was no operative fine mechanism for that youngest segment of underage riders.

Separately, ONISR (the Observatoire national interministériel de la sécurité routière), France's official road-safety statistics body, confirmed that it tracks EDPM accidents (trottinettes électriques, gyropodes) as their own category in the annual national Bilan de la sécurité routière. That confirms EDPM safety outcomes are officially monitored at the national level, even though the specific injury and fatality counts were not available from the source consulted for this article.

How France compares

France's EDPM rules sit between two very different neighbouring approaches. Germany requires a specific type approval (Betriebserlaubnis) before a device can be sold or ridden at all, a stricter gate than France's speed-and-weight definition (see Germany's e-scooter rules). The United Kingdom takes the opposite position: a privately owned e-scooter is still illegal to ride in public there at all, with legal riding limited to licensed rental trials (see the UK's e-scooter laws). For a wider country-by-country picture, see RecordingLaw's world e-scooter law map, and for France's other driving rules, see the France driving laws hub and the France country guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it legal to ride a private e-scooter in France?

Yes. A privately owned EDPM can be ridden lawfully by anyone 14 or older who follows the Code de la route's circulation rules on where to ride, single-rider limits, and insurance. This is separate from rental e-scooter availability, which varies by city.

What is the minimum age to ride an e-scooter in France?

14. The original 2019 decree set the minimum at 12; Décret n° 2023-848 raised it to 14 from 1 September 2023, and a later 2024 decree restructured the article without changing that age.

Do I need insurance for my e-scooter in France?

Yes. Art. L211-1 of the Code des assurances sets a broad compulsory civil liability insurance obligation covering self-propelled land vehicles, and insurers consistently treat EDPM devices as falling under it. Riding uninsured is reported to risk a fine up to €3,750, device confiscation, and a possible licence suspension.

Can I ride an e-scooter on the sidewalk in France?

Not by default. Sidewalks are off-limits to EDPM riders unless a mayor has specifically authorized riding on that stretch of pavement at walking pace. Riding without that authorization can bring a €135 fine.

Is the Paris e-scooter ban still in effect?

Yes, but only for shared rental fleets. Paris removed free floating rental operators (Lime, Tier, Dott) from the city on 1 September 2023 after a referendum. Privately owned e-scooters were never covered by that ban and remain subject to the ordinary national rules.

What happens if I unlock (débride) my e-scooter to go faster than 25 km/h?

The device stops meeting the EDPM definition and is treated under moped (cyclomoteur) rules instead: registration, a permis AM, moped-grade insurance, and mandatory helmet and gloves. Riding it unlocked without that can also bring a fine of up to €1,500, doublable to €3,000 on a repeat offence.

Can children under 14 be fined for riding an e-scooter in France?

A 2025 Sénat exchange confirmed there is currently no legal code to impose a fine on a rider under 13 specifically, since minors that young lack penal responsibility for contraventions. Officers can still stop, warn, and potentially seize the device; riders aged 13 up to the 14-year minimum fall outside that narrow gap.

Do I need a helmet to ride an e-scooter in France?

Not generally. French law does not set a blanket helmet requirement for EDPM riders. A helmet becomes mandatory only where a mayor has authorized riding on a road with a speed limit up to 80 km/h, alongside high-visibility and lighting requirements for that specific stretch of road.