“Only yes means yes”
Consent to sex: France passes Pelicot law
October 30, 2025 – 10:48 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
France is changing its criminal law: in the future, only explicit consent will be considered consent to sex. What does this have to do with the Pelicot case?
In France, the principle of “only yes means yes” will apply to sexual criminal law in the future: rape is defined as any sexual act without the express consent of the other person. The Senate in Paris finally passed a corresponding change in the law on Wednesday. The National Assembly, the second chamber of parliament, had previously approved a corresponding law.
Specifically, the law changes the definition of sexual offenses. Sexual assault is defined as “any non-consensual sexual act”. The consent is, among other things, free, specific and revocable. “It cannot be derived solely from the victim’s silence or lack of reaction.”
The law is also a consequence of the high-profile Avignon rape trial. Numerous defendants had testified that they did not have the impression that they were raping the victim Gisèle Pelicot because, in their opinion, the woman had pretended to be asleep.
In fact, she had been drugged by her husband, who then offered her to online acquaintances for rape. The trial ended with prison sentences for all 51 defendants.
Laws punishing rape based on the “only yes means yes” principle already exist in other European countries such as Denmark, Greece, Sweden and Spain. The less strict principle “no means no” has been in effect in Germany since 2016. Accordingly, all sexual acts that are carried out against “the recognizable will of another person” are punishable as rape.
