Ruling prohibits sale of a glyphosate product to professionals, citing arguments that chemical is potentially carcinogenic.

A French court has banned the sale of Roundup Pro 360 — a weedkiller that contains the controversial ingredient glyphosate — to professional gardeners and farmers.

The ruling follows the ban enacted on 1 January in France on amateur gardeners buying herbicides that contain glyphosate.

The safety of glyphosate — a widely used herbicide — has been under mounting scrutiny since 2015, when a scientific body of the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that it is “probably carcinogenic” to humans, although other studies disagree.

The ruling, made in a Lyon administrative court on 15 January, revokes the national market authorization of Roundup Pro 360, which was issued by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) in March 2017. The product was developed by US agrochemical giant Monsanto, which was bought by the German firm Bayer in 2018.