Is CBD Legal in Europe? EU Law and the Dutch Position

CBD oil is easy to find for sale in the Netherlands. A Belgian government FAQ says CBD and its extracts can't be authorised in any form as food or a food supplement. A British regulator keeps a list of CBD products by name. Same molecule, three very different pictures. So where does CBD actually stand in Europe?

There is no single European answer, and as of 13 October 2026 the honest one comes in layers. Under EU food law, CBD in a supplement is a novel food. The European Commission said in 2023 that none had been authorised, and EFSA's 2026 statement (EFSA is the EU's food safety agency) says oral CBD products remain unauthorised. THC, medicines and cosmetics each follow separate rules. Countries then add their own: in the Netherlands, CBD isn't named in the Opium Act, and we found no official Dutch THC limit for CBD products. So the useful question isn't "is CBD legal?" but "what is this product, what's in it, and where is it going?" Let's take those in turn, with the Netherlands in the middle of the map.

The EU layer: a novel food, with no authorisation we could find

EU food law hinges on a date: 15 May 1997. A food that wasn't eaten to a significant degree in the EU before then is "novel" and needs authorisation before it can be sold.

In a statement endorsed by the member states on 27 February 2023, the Commission said no such history of consumption had been shown for CBD or other cannabinoids from the cannabis plant. Apart from THC, they therefore count as novel foods, and none had been authorised. It reported over 190 applications, 20 of them judged valid at that point, and said member states have the primary responsibility for enforcement, which is one reason national pictures differ.

The 2020 Court of Justice ruling (Case C-663/18) often gets quoted as "CBD is legal". It said something narrower. CBD lawfully produced from the whole plant in one member state isn't a narcotic under the 1961 UN convention, so another member state can't simply ban its marketing. Public health can still justify a restriction, if it's proportionate and based on more than hypothetical risk. That is narcotics law and free movement, not food law.

What EFSA said on 9 February 2026

EFSA's updated safety statement on CBD:

• found the data gaps from its 2022 statement still open, covering the liver, the gut and the endocrine, nervous and reproductive systems;
• derived a provisional safe intake of 0.0275 mg per kg of body weight per day, about 2 mg for a 70 kg adult, which applies "solely" to food supplements with at least 98% CBD, no nanoparticles, a production process considered safe and genotoxicity ruled out;
• said safety couldn't be established for people under 25 (whose nervous systems are still developing), pregnant or lactating women, or people taking medicines;
• noted that CBD products intended for oral consumption remain unauthorised under the novel food regulation.

An opinion isn't an authorisation. According to the Commission, after EFSA publishes an opinion the Commission prepares a draft implementing act for the member states' committee, and that act updates the Union list. Belgian authorities make the same point about the 2 mg figure: it shouldn't be read as an acceptable dose, because without a novel food authorisation selling such products stays illegal.

EFSA's later opinions on individual applications went two ways. Four (for 30, 30, 60 and 150 mg a day, for example) couldn't establish safety because the data EFSA asked for weren't supplied. One, published 18 September 2026, judged a synthetic product of at least 98% CBD, dissolved in MCT oil, safe at 2 mg a day for adults over 25 under those conditions, except for people on medication. The Commission decides what follows. As of 13 October 2026 we found no Commission decision authorising a CBD novel food, and its page of terminated procedures lists dozens of CBD-related applications closed since December 2021 without updating the Union list. We didn't search the Union list ourselves, so it and the Novel Food Status Catalogue are the places to check a specific product.

THC: one word, plenty of different numbers

If you've read "legal below 0.2% THC" or "0.3% THC" somewhere, here's the catch: the numbers people quote measure different things.

• Number: 0.3% THC; What it actually measures: The THC level of a hemp variety's flowering tops, in EU farm rules. A crop, not a bottle; Source: Belgian authorities' FAQ; RVO
• Number: 3.0 and 7.5 mg/kg THC equivalents; What it actually measures: EU maximum levels for hemp seeds and hemp seed oil (Regulation (EU) 2023/915). Food made from seeds, not CBD extracts; Source: Belgian authorities' FAQ
• Number: 1% total THC (average); What it actually measures: Switzerland's narcotics-law line: cannabis products below it aren't covered by the Narcotics Act; Source: BAG page
• Number: 70 micrograms a day of Δ9-THC; What it actually measures: The UK Food Standards Agency's safe upper limit, which it encourages CBD businesses to meet; Source: FSA guidance
• Number: Netherlands; What it actually measures: No official limit found; Source: Dutch section below

The Commission's 2023 statement gives the EU principle: THC counts as a drug under the 1971 UN convention, so it can't be food, and its presence in food is regulated through contaminants legislation. A plant-level limit, a seed-food limit, a daily-intake figure and a narcotics threshold aren't interchangeable, which is why "it's under 0.3%, so it's fine" isn't a rule anyone can apply to a bottle.

Hemp oil, hemp extract, CBD oil: same plant, different paperwork

Hemp and cannabis are the same species, Cannabis sativa L. "Hemp" is the word for varieties low in THC: Belgian authorities define it as 0.3% or less in the flowering tops, against 3 to 15% total THC in the varieties sold as cannabis.

Seeds and pressed seed oil have a documented history as food, so they aren't novel; the UK FSA, the Swiss food safety office (BLV) and Belgian authorities all say so. A CBD extract is a different product. The FSA describes extracts as made from most parts of the plant and selectively extracted, which can concentrate the CBD. Belgian authorities say such an extract is a novel food even from plants with 0.3% THC or less, and that diluting it in hemp seed oil doesn't change that. So "hemp oil" and "CBD oil" aren't synonyms, and a label can use the first to describe the second.

Food, medicine or cosmetic? The label does a lot of the deciding

• Category: Food supplement; What the sources say: Needs novel food authorisation for CBD; none found (see above). Medical claims aren't allowed; Source type: Commission, EFSA; Belgian FAQ
• Category: Medicine; What the sources say: One prescription CBD medicine for certain rare epilepsies (Epidyolex) was authorised by the EMA in 2019; a doctor experienced in epilepsy starts and supervises it. Germany's federal food safety office says a CBD product needs either a medicines or a novel food authorisation application before marketing; Source type: EMA; German BVL FAQ
• Category: Cosmetic; What the sources say: The Commission's scientific committee (SCCS, opinion adopted 26 March 2026) considered pure CBD safe up to 0.19% in dermal and oral cosmetics, and THC as an impurity safe up to 0.00025%.; Source type: SCCS opinion

The category isn't only about what's in the bottle. Belgian authorities say a product's presentation and intended use decide whether it's a food, and that "not for consumption" on the pack isn't enough: a sweet-like product containing CBD marked that way is still treated as food. In Belgium's reading, medicine generally wins over food, and food over cosmetic. That is Belgium's reading, not an EU rule.

The Netherlands: not on the Opium Act lists, but not simply "allowed"

The statute. The Opium Act (Opiumwet) text on wetten.overheid.nl, viewed on 13 October 2026, is the version in force from 17 September 2026. List I names tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and "hennepolie", defined as a concentrate of hemp obtained by extracting hemp or hashish, with or without oil, and also covers preparations containing listed substances. List II names "hennep" (any part of the plant from which the resin hasn't been extracted, except the seeds) and hashish. CBD isn't named on either list, and the text contains no THC percentage. Article 2 (List I) and Article 3 (List II) each prohibit, among other things, bringing the listed substances into or out of the Netherlands, growing, preparing, selling, supplying, transporting and possessing them.

What the statute leaves open. The text doesn't say whether a hemp-extract CBD oil counts as "hennepolie" or as a preparation containing THC, and we found no official statement or court ruling on it. We found no official Dutch THC limit for CBD products. DRUGSinfo (undated) mentions 0.2%; undated law-firm commentary mentions 0.05%. We state no limit of our own. DRUGSinfo, a service of the Trimbos Institute, says CBD products without THC are legal, that any THC makes a product illegal, that the CBD in products must be lab-made, and that extracting it from the cannabis plant for use in a product is prohibited. It doesn't name a provision, and none of this is a statute or ruling. Its 0.2% THC figure also sits uneasily beside its line about products without THC.

The food side. The NVWA (the food and consumer product safety authority) supervises supplements sold in the Netherlands, and its supplements page (undated) says the business must check whether an ingredient is a novel food, which must be approved in the EU before it is sold. The page addresses businesses. The NVWA told a consumer programme in October 2017 that a CBD oil's status depended on what was in it and the claim on its label, and that medical claims aren't allowed on a supplement. We found no NVWA page about CBD and no official statement of a Dutch tolerance policy (gedoogbeleid), so whether a particular oil on a Dutch shelf will be left alone isn't something official sources let us say. "On sale" isn't the same as "authorised". A product can pass the drug-law question and still raise the food-law one.

A quick lap around six other countries

Same EU rules, different national layers. These are snapshots, each dated at its source; none is a full national picture.

• Belgium. The federal public health service's FAQ (August 2026 version) says CBD and CBD extracts can't be sold as food or food supplements in any form, even from plants with 0.3% THC or less. It calls CBD oil an unauthorised novel food that can't be marketed in the EU, e-commerce included.
• Germany. The federal food safety office (BVL) FAQ, marked "as of April 2025", says CBD is novel, no authorisation has been granted and such products therefore aren't marketable. It adds that Δ9-THC in such products can bring the consumer cannabis law into play.
• France. ANSES, the national food and health safety agency, wrote in a 28 November 2024 opinion that while EFSA's assessment is pending, selling and consuming foods containing CBD is prohibited.
• United Kingdom. The FSA's guidance (updated 28 August 2026) says CBD extracts and isolates are novel foods and none has been authorised; England and Wales have a list of products linked to applications, and the FSA says products not on it should be withdrawn. The Home Office factsheet says isolated pure CBD isn't a controlled drug, but products with controlled cannabinoids such as THC are, unless they meet the "exempt product" definition.
• Switzerland. The BLV page (undated) says cannabinoids from hemp count as novel foods needing BLV approval or EU authorisation. The BAG page (undated) says CBD isn't under the Narcotics Act, nor are cannabis products under 1% total THC.
• Italy. One trade-news report (3 August 2026) says a 2024 health ministry decree put CBD compositions from plant extracts in the controlled-substances medicines table, and that the question has gone to the EU Court of Justice; it doesn't say whether the decree is in force.

Labels, claims and lab reports

Three things are worth reading on any CBD pack: the category it claims, what it says the product does, and what the batch report shows. A supplement can't carry medical claims under the Dutch rules the NVWA described in 2017, and Belgian authorities say claims about preventing, treating or curing disease are reserved for medicines.

A "THC-free" or "below the limit" line is the seller's claim. In a US study of 202 CBD products (Gidal and colleagues, 2024; funded by Jazz Pharmaceuticals, which sells a prescription CBD medicine), 74% deviated from their labelled CBD amount by at least 10%, and 26% didn't match the product type on the pack. In a Czech-led study of 186 CBD and related oils sold in Europe over about a decade (Binova and colleagues, 2026), 86 of 181 didn't contain the declared amount of CBD, and the authors estimated that at recommended servings EFSA's acute reference dose for combined Δ9- and Δ8-THC would be exceeded in 39% of products. Those oils were gathered over many years, so they're a reason to want batch evidence, not a current failure rate.

The UK Home Office says showing that a product is within its exempt-product limit requires analysis by a laboratory accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, a good yardstick for credible evidence. Our guide to CBD oil, capsules and gummies covers how to read a certificate and the label arithmetic.

Ordering or travelling with CBD

Sale, possession and import are three different legal questions, and an answer to one doesn't settle the others.

• Across EU borders. The 2020 Court ruling protects the free movement of lawfully produced CBD only within limits, and Belgian authorities say CBD oil can't be marketed in the EU, e-commerce included. A shop that ships "across Europe" hasn't answered anything about the parcel.
• Into or out of the Netherlands. The Opium Act bans bringing List I and List II substances in or out. Whether a particular CBD oil falls under either list is the open question above, and we found no Dutch customs guidance on CBD.
• Into the UK. The Home Office says a product containing controlled cannabinoids imported from the EU or anywhere else needs an import licence unless it meets the exempt-product definition, that it doesn't assess whether a product is exempt, and that other countries' rules don't override UK law.
• If it's a prescribed medicine. Ask the prescriber what documents to carry and check with the destination's authorities; we found no general EU rule to point to.

Laws change and countries differ, so check current rules with the relevant authority (food, drug law, customs, carrier) before you buy, carry or sell anything.

Five questions to ask before you buy

1. What is it sold as? A supplement, a cosmetic or a medicine, and do the claims on the pack fit that category?
2. What does the batch report say about THC? Is it for your batch, and which laboratory produced it?
3. Which country's rules apply? Where is it made, where is it sold and where is it delivered?
4. Is this exact ingredient authorised, or just on sale? The Union list and the Novel Food Status Catalogue are the places to look.
5. Does one of EFSA's excluded groups include you? If you're under 25, pregnant or breastfeeding, or taking medicines, EFSA says safety can't be established, so ask a pharmacist or doctor first. Our guide to CBD and medicine interactions explains why.

For more, our beginner's guide to CBD covers what CBD is and what the trials show, minor cannabinoids explained covers CBN and CBG, and buying in the Netherlands and EU has dated notes on other substances. For label habits that apply to every product, see how to read supplement labels.

Written by Smart Supplements with AI assistance from the sources linked in the text. It has not been reviewed by a clinician.

Last updated: 13 October 2026

This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult a healthcare professional before starting any new supplement, especially if you take prescription medication.