Superyachts ≥ 50 m & the Riviera — Special Legislation Assessment

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A Special Legislation Assessment examines one pending text against the primary record: proposition de loi n° 2968 — the proposed ban on superyachts of 50 metres and more — read through the bill as tabled, the anchoring law actually in force, and the coast's harbour registers.

1 · Purpose and the question asked

This note is prepared for owners — and prospective owners — of motor yachts exceeding 50 metres whose property interests lie on the Côte d'Azur, and who have read that France proposes to ban their vessels from its ports. The question examined is whether proposition de loi n° 2968, tabled in June 2026, should weigh on a Riviera acquisition or on how a large yacht is based here. The short answer developed below: the text is a minority political signal with a very low probability of ever entering into force, it changes nothing in current law, and the coast's harbour geography — the densest concentration of 50-metre-capable berths in Europe, two of them outside French jurisdiction — would serve such a vessel under any scenario the record supports. The analysis rests on the full primary sources: the bill as tabled, its exact precedent, the regulations actually in force, and the registers of the ports themselves.

2 · The proposal, in plain terms

PPL n° 2968 was tabled at the Assemblée nationale on 23 June 2026 by deputy Thomas Portes and the France Insoumise group. Three articles would amend the transport code: Article 1 refuses port access and berthing to pleasure vessels of 50 metres or more overall length, with exceptions for distress, assistance, serious damage, weather, medical evacuation and maritime-safety orders. Article 2 bars the same vessels from anchoring in internal and territorial waters — expressly preserving innocent passage — on pain of a judicial fine of 1% to 15% of the vessel's estimated value, an order to leave French waters under penalty payments, and two further penalties: confiscation of the vessel and a five-to-ten-year ban covering any vessel the convicted party owns or controls. Article 3 creates disclosure duties — flag, owner, operator, beneficial owner, crew employment terms — enforceable by fines up to 5% of vessel value and immobilisation. Crew salaries and employment guarantees are expressly protected throughout.

3 · Where the text actually stands

The proposal is exactly that — a proposal. It has been referred to the sustainable development committee, has no examination date, and is signed by a single opposition group of 72 deputies with no support beyond it. Its trajectory has a precise precedent: the same deputy's 2022 proposal to ban private jets (PPL n° 885), referred to the same committee, was never once examined and lapsed with the legislature. For PPL 2968 to become law it would need a slot in the group's limited parliamentary window, a majority in an Assemblée whose current arithmetic opposes it, and passage through a Senate structurally hostile to the text. On the record of comparable proposals, the probability of entry into force within twenty-four months is very low — our working estimate is under five per cent. The more realistic vector is partial reuse of its ideas as budget-bill amendments, which past sessions have consistently rejected.

4 · The law as it stands today

Nothing in current French law restricts a 50-metre yacht's access to Riviera ports. What does exist, and has since 2019–2021, is the Mediterranean anchoring regime mapped below: by prefectoral order, vessels of 24 metres and above may not anchor over protected posidonia meadows, with designated sectors along the coast; the maritime court in Marseille has confirmed fines under this regime. A professionally run vessel plans around it as routine seamanship — berthing in port, or anchoring on sand outside the meadows, exactly as charter itineraries already do. On the fiscal side, the 2018 "grande plaisance" levy reaches only French-flagged vessels and foreign-flagged vessels owned or controlled by French residents — the official record shows it collected €60,000 across all of France in 2024, from a fleet of eight vessels — and pleasure vessels sit outside the EU maritime emissions-trading scheme. In short: the operating environment for a 50-metre-plus yacht on this coast today is permissive, orderly, and unchanged by the June proposal.

5 · The harbour infrastructure

Between Cannes and Monaco runs the densest concentration of 50-metre-capable berths in Europe — and it is precisely the infrastructure that seventy years of yachting capital built: quays, security, provisioning, refit yards and crew ecosystems. The map above and the register below give the picture; road times are from Théoule-sur-Mer.

6 · If it were ever enacted — an honest reading

Candour requires noting what would stand and what would likely fall. A state does hold sovereignty over its internal waters and port access; an eventual ban would not fail merely for being maritime. It would face harder tests elsewhere: an absolute access ban on one category of lawful vessel raises proportionality and equality questions under the constitutional bloc; confiscation as a penalty for a mooring infraction invites censure; and the charter economy engages EU freedom-to-provide- services law. Any adopted text would face immediate constitutional review and, in practice, transition periods. Meanwhile the geography is decisive: Monaco's Port Hercule and Italy's Cala del Forte sit within an hour of the whole bay of Cannes, outside French jurisdiction entirely, and innocent passage through French territorial waters is preserved by the proposal itself. Even the stress scenario, in other words, relocates a berth — not a life built on this coast.

7 · Assessment

The fair reading is this: PPL 2968 is a political statement about inequality made through the most photogenic asset class available, not an operational threat to yacht ownership on the Côte d'Azur. It has no force today, a very low probability of force tomorrow, and a shape that would struggle to survive constitutional review even then. The berth infrastructure between Cannes and Monaco represents decades of capital that no single-group proposal unwinds. Our assessment is therefore optimistic without being dismissive: a Riviera acquisition case stands on its own merits, the yacht keeps its harbours, and this office monitors the parliamentary dossier continuously — any change in the text's trajectory reaches our clients before it reaches the press. This note is general information on a pending legislative proposal, not legal advice; structuring decisions should involve your own counsel.

Method. Legislative record verified 22 July 2026 against the Assemblée nationale dossier (PPL n° 2968, 17e législature) and the Préfecture maritime de la Méditerranée anchoring orders, through the Chiron Legal Corpus. Port capacities from operator registers; anchoring sectors indicative — authoritative charts are the prefectoral annexes and DONIA. Prepared by Elena Agueeva Real Estate — elena@elenaagueeva.com · +33 7 66 44 02 34.

Where do these figures come from?

From « Demandes de Valeurs Foncières » (DVF), Direction générale des Finances publiques — the only official record of French property transactions — estate-deduplicated by the Elena Agueeva Intelligence Unit.

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