FranceLégifrance
Watch and jewellery traders face AML duties for goods over €10,000
The new professional-trader test applies regardless of payment method; other goods traders retain a separate cash or electronic-money test.
By Taxxa AI OyPublished 1 August 2026
Professional watch and jewellery traders now fall within French anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing obligations when they deal in goods worth more than €10,000Legifrance, regardless of the payment method
Legifrance. The amended 11° of article L. 561-2 covers trading carried on as a regular or principal professional activity in the horlogerie, bijouterie, joaillerie and orfèvrerie sectors.
The operative threshold is the value of the good: it must exceed €10,000Legifrance. The new sector-specific branch does not make coverage conditional on accepting cash or electronic money
Legifrance. A business meeting that test therefore cannot assess its inclusion solely by looking at how the customer pays. Both natural persons and legal persons are within the article's list of obliged entities.
The previous 11° covered persons trading in goods who accepted cash or electronic-money payments above a threshold fixed by decreeLegifrance. That branch remains for other goods traders
Legifrance. The amendment separates the new sector-specific value test from this payment-based test; it does not turn every goods trader into an obliged entity whenever a good costs more than €10,000
Legifrance.
The distinction also matters for precious-metals and precious-stones businesses. The separate 11° bis retains its own test for persons, other than those listed at 1° to 7° quater, trading habitually and principally in those materialsLegifrance: the transaction or series of linked transactions must total at least €10,000
Legifrance. Its inclusive threshold and linked-transaction wording should not be substituted for the new 11° test.
For Wallis-et-Futuna, article L. 775-36 now refers to the version of L. 561-2 resulting from the 25 June 2026 fraud lawLegifrance. The table excludes 1° quater, 6° bis and 17°
Legifrance. Its exclusion of 9° bis concerns only gaming or betting operators authorised under article 21 of loi n° 2010-476 du 12 mai 2010
Legifrance. Application remains subject to the local adaptations in paragraphs II and III.
Article 67(II) schedules the amendment in 1° of paragraph ILegifrance to enter into force on the first day of the second month following publication of the law.
The legal basis is article 67 of loi n° 2026-534 du 25 juin 2026 relative à la lutte contre les fraudes sociales et fiscalesLegifrance and articles L. 561-2, 11° and 11° bis, and L. 775-36 of the Code monétaire et financier
Legifrance.
Review the AML scope of your watch, jewellery or goldsmithing business against the over-€10,000 goods-value test regardless of payment method.