Aesthetic procedures reserved for qualified physicians and …

Medical acts for aesthetic purposes that involve a medication, a specific medical technical skill, or an invasive medical device are now reserved for qualified physicians, capped at 30% of their working time, and subject to declaration to the professional order and the regional health agency. Decree No. 2026-1043 of November 12, 2026, NOR: SFHH2628760D, was published in the Official Journal of the French Republic No. 0266 on November 14, 2026. It creates, within the Public Health Code, a Section II in Chapter I of Title V of Book I of the first part, dedicated to the “medical practice of acts, processes, techniques, and methods for aesthetic purposes.”

The text is sponsored by the Minister of Health, Families, Autonomy and People with Disabilities and by the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Space. Until now, no section of the code specifically defined or regulated this practice: the decree first establishes a legal definition, followed by the required qualifications for practitioners, information and consent obligations, the reflection period, and the administrative sanctions regime.

Three criteria that shift an act into the medical field

Article D. 1152-1 defines acts for aesthetic purposes as those aimed at modifying a person’s physical appearance, at their request, for purely aesthetic purposes, without therapeutic, functional, restorative, or diagnostic character, excluding surgical acts defined in Article R. 6322-1.

These acts may only be implemented by a physician “given the risk to human health” as soon as their performance involves one of the following three elements:

a medication;
a specific medical skill or technical expertise;
a class 2b or 3 invasive medical device, or a group 3 device from Annex XVI of Regulation (EU) 2017/745.

Plastic surgeons, complementary right of practice, or five years plus training

Article D. 1152-2 reserves the practice to three categories of practitioners:

physicians qualified in plastic, reconstructive, and aesthetic surgery;
physicians duly authorized under Article R. 4131-30;
physicians justifying five years of practice in the specialty in which they are qualified and having validated theoretical and practical training whose content and access conditions are set by decree of the ministers in charge of health and higher education and research.

Practice remains subject to the code of medical ethics, particularly Articles R. 4127-25 and R. 4127-71 (Article D. 1152-5).

30% cap, declaration, and public list by field

Article D. 1152-3 requires the physician to declare the practice of their aesthetic activity, as well as its temporary or permanent cessation, to the departmental council of the order of physicians (conseil départemental de l’ordre des médecins) under which they fall and to the territorially competent regional health agency (agence régionale de santé).

The activity may only be practiced as a complementary and accessory part of the qualifying specialty and “cannot represent more than 30% of the physician’s working time”; the practitioner submits the elements justifying this share of activity each year. An order from the minister in charge of health must specify the declaration procedures and the documents to be provided.

The departmental council also maintains a list of physicians practicing this activity, which is made available to the public and transmitted to the director general of the ARS. This list specifies the validated areas of training:

preventive and anti-aging aesthetic medical activity;
aesthetic medical activity for body hair and hair;
aesthetic medical activity for the eyes and ocular plastics;
genital aesthetic medical activity;
silhouette aesthetic medical activity.

Information sheet, quote, and five days of reflection

Articles D. 1152-6 to D. 1152-9 regulate the relationship with the person: posting in the waiting room the non-therapeutic nature of the practice and the physician’s diploma or complementary right to practice, provision of an information sheet on indications, contraindications, and risks, free and informed consent recorded in the medical file, and the mandatory content of the file.

A detailed, dated, and signed quote must be provided, mentioning the procedures for reporting serious adverse events associated with care and the non-therapeutic nature of the act. A minimum period of five days must be observed after its delivery, unless a waiver is requested by the person when the act is part of a series already consented to, performed with the same technique and by the same physician. The practitioner who met with the person performs the acts listed in the quote themselves.

A phased transitional regime until 2031

Article 2 provides exemptions for physicians already in practice. Those who have exclusively practiced an aesthetic activity for five years or more must justify, by December 31, 2028, at the latest, that this activity does not exceed 50% of their working time over the past year, and have until December 31, 2031, to comply with the 30% ceiling.

Those who have practiced for less than five years, whether exclusively or not, must justify a share less than or equal to 30% by December 31, 2028, at the latest. Physicians meeting the conditions of Article R. 4131-33 may request the right to complementary practice until July 1, 2027; others have six months from the time they satisfy the five-year practice condition, and may begin an activity within three months following the entry into force of the decree. They may continue their activity until the decision of the departmental council.

Sanctions and Scope

Article D. 1152-10 refers to Articles L. 1152-1 and L. 1152-2 of the Public Health Code to sanction non-compliance with these conditions, the competent administrative authority being the departmental council of the order of physicians with which the practitioner is registered.

For practitioners, the entry into force means immediate compliance with qualification conditions and a declaration to the two supervisory authorities; for patients, it makes the quote, the five-day reflection period, and the display of the right to practice enforceable, and makes the public departmental list the primary verification tool before any procedure.

Decree No. 2026-1043 of November 12, 2026, NOR: SFHH2628760D, Official Journal of the French Republic No. 0266 of November 14, 2026.