Based in Dubai, selling in France: who answers the French authority
Director abroad, sales in France: what triggers the French consumer authority, who answers, and how documents and deadlines are handled remotely.
The short answer
- Living abroad does not remove jurisdiction: the French consumer authority has jurisdiction as soon as the commercial practice is implemented in France or produces its effects there, under article L. 132-1 of the French Consumer Code, with no requirement of establishment, nationality or presence on French territory.
- Company and director are two separate tracks: administrative measures (injunction under article L. 521-1, administrative fine under article L. 522-1) target the company, while the director may be pursued personally, the liability of a legal entity not excluding that of the natural persons who committed the same acts (article 121-2, third paragraph, of the French Criminal Code).
- Documents can be obtained without anyone being in France: authorised investigators may require communication of documents of any kind on any medium (article L. 512-8), access software, stored data and algorithms (article L. 512-11), and require substantiation of commercial claims even where the evidence is held by a manufacturer established outside French territory (article L. 512-15).
- A foreign choice of law does not shield the seller: article 6 of the Rome I Regulation prevents a choice of law from depriving the consumer of mandatory protection, and article L. 232-6 of the Consumer Code states that the protection is not set aside even where the applicable law is that of a third country.
- The adversarial period is one month and can be handled by a representative: article L. 522-5 of the Consumer Code and article R. 522-2 set a one month period to submit observations on a contemplated sanction, and article L. 122-1 of the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration allows the person concerned to be assisted by counsel or represented by an agent of their choice.
- Measures can be decided in the director's absence: an injunction may carry a daily periodic penalty payment of up to 3,000 euros capped at 300,000 euros (article L. 521-1), and a requisition against the online interface under article L. 521-3-1 may order a warning message, de-referencing or blocking of a domain name for up to three months renewable once, with an implementation period that may not be less than forty eight hours.
When a company sells to French consumers, the French consumer authority has jurisdiction over the practice regardless of where its director lives. The inspection is directed at the company, and the director may be pursued personally on a separate track. Living in Dubai changes the logistics of the file. It changes neither the jurisdiction, nor the powers of the investigators, nor the deadlines.
The question directors in the Gulf ask first is usually framed the wrong way. It is not whether the French administration can act, but who it will act against, on what basis, and what it obtains without anyone being present in France. The answers in the French Consumer Code are broader than most foreign directors expect.
This article sets out what triggers the authority's jurisdiction, how the position of the inspected company differs from that of the director personally pursued, what changes when there is an establishment, an employee or simply a site aimed at French customers, how documents are obtained at a distance, and how deadlines and notifications are handled across time zones. For any question, our team acting in DGCCRF, DDPP and DREETS proceedings assists companies and directors established outside the European Union.
What triggers the jurisdiction of the French authority when the director lives abroad
The connecting factor: a practice implemented in France or producing its effects there
The central text is short and decisive. The offence of misleading commercial practice defined in articles L. 121-2 to L. 121-4 of the French Consumer Code is constituted as soon as the practice is implemented or produces its effects in France (article L. 132-1). There is no requirement of establishment, of nationality, or that the person responsible ever set foot in France. General criminal law points the same way: an offence is deemed committed on French territory as soon as one of its constituent elements took place there (article 113-2 of the Criminal Code).
Activity directed at the French consumer
Consumer law adds the notion of activity directed at a market. Article L. 231-1 of the Consumer Code treats a close connection with a member state as established in particular where the professional directs its activity towards the territory in which the consumer resides, and article L. 232-6 adds that the protection is not set aside even where the applicable law is that of a third country. Article 6 of the Rome I Regulation prevents a choice of law from depriving the consumer of mandatory protection, and article 18.1 of the Brussels I bis Regulation allows the consumer to sue in their own courts.
Investigators' powers carry no nationality condition
Investigators of the competition, consumer affairs and fraud control services are authorised to investigate and establish the relevant offences and breaches (article L. 511-3 of the Consumer Code), and that authorisation extends specifically to misleading commercial practices together with the additional powers of article L. 512-15 (article L. 511-5). Determining which of your operations create a French connecting factor is an analysis to run with counsel at the outset, because it defines the perimeter of the whole file.
The inspected company and the director personally pursued: two distinct situations
The legal entity is the natural addressee of administrative measures
Administrative measures target the professional as such: the injunction of article L. 521-1 of the Consumer Code, its publicity under article L. 521-2, and the administrative fine of article L. 522-1. The company answers for the practice, receives the report and the notice of contemplated sanction, and bears the fine and the publicity. Its director signs the observations and organises the response, but the debtor is the company.
The natural person as director
Personal exposure exists on a separate track. Articles L. 522-2 and L. 522-3 of the Consumer Code set distinct limitation thresholds depending on whether the fine incurred exceeds 3,000 euros for a natural person or 15,000 euros for a legal entity, which confirms that an administrative fine may be imposed on an individual. The liability of legal entities does not exclude that of the natural persons who are perpetrators or accomplices of the same acts (article 121-2, third paragraph, of the Criminal Code), and article L. 132-3 of the Consumer Code adds a prohibition on managing a commercial undertaking for up to five years. Which track a file is on cannot be inferred from a single letter, and establishing that is among the first things counsel does.
Table 1 - Who answers for what
What we see in practice
In the files we handle for directors established outside the European Union, the inspection almost never starts with the director. It starts with whoever the investigators find at the French address: a logistics contact, a part-time customer service employee, sometimes a service provider who is not even an employee of the group. That person is asked, entirely lawfully, to explain how orders are processed, who writes the product descriptions and who validates prices. They answer in good faith, from partial knowledge, and their statements are recorded in a report that is admissible until proof to the contrary. We regularly see files where the whole subsequent discussion consists of correcting, months later, three sentences given on a morning when nobody with authority was reachable. The recurring failure is not bad faith. It is that no one on site had been told, in advance, what they were entitled to say, what they should defer, and who to call within the hour.
What changes with an establishment, an employee or simply a website
An establishment in France opens on-site inspection
Where the company has premises in France, investigators may access places used for professional purposes between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and outside those hours where the premises are open to the public or an activity is taking place (article L. 512-5 of the Consumer Code). Where the premises are also a dwelling, the inspection requires, if the occupant objects, the authorisation of the liberties and custody judge (article L. 512-6).
An employee or agent is a material point of entry
A single employee, a warehouse operator, a customer service provider or a local agent gives the administration a physical point of contact. Investigators may collect, on site or on summons, any information, justification or document necessary for their inspections, and hear any person likely to provide useful evidence (article L. 512-10). Reports are admissible until proof to the contrary (article L. 512-2), so what is written on a day when nobody competent was reachable will later have to be displaced.
A site simply directed at French customers
Where there is no establishment and no employee, the online interface is the object of the inspection. For the control of the sale of goods, the supply of services and commercial practices on the internet, authorised investigators may use an assumed identity, the conditions of their findings being set by decree adopted after consultation of the Conseil d'Etat (article L. 512-16, as amended by Law no. 2025-594 of 30 June 2025). Our overview of dropshipping to France from abroad looks at the findings such an examination produces. How a French team should be briefed on an unannounced visit is a governance question to settle with counsel in advance.
How the authority obtains documents when nobody is physically present
The right to obtain documents
The power that carries most weight in a cross-border file is deceptively short. Authorised investigators may require the communication of documents of any kind capable of facilitating their task, may obtain them or take copies by any means and on any medium, or seize them in whosoever's hands they may be (article L. 512-8 of the Consumer Code). Professional secrecy may not be invoked against investigators acting within the powers conferred on them (article L. 512-3).
Software, stored data and algorithms
Access is not limited to paper. Investigators have access to software, to stored data and to algorithms, may be assisted by any person, and may require documents to be communicated on a computer medium in a form allowing the processing of the information (article L. 512-11, as amended by Law no. 2025-594 of 30 June 2025). For a business run from a cloud environment administered from the Gulf, that text answers the assumption that data hosted abroad is out of reach.
Substantiation of claims, including where held outside France
The most specific text is also the most underestimated. For the investigation of misleading commercial practices, investigators may require the person responsible for the practice to communicate all evidence capable of substantiating the claims, indications or presentations, including where that evidence is held by a manufacturer established outside national territory (article L. 512-15). This is where the interests of foreign suppliers and French sellers turn out to be connected and sometimes not aligned, a configuration covered in our article on the foreign supplier whose French customer is summoned. What is produced, and when, is a decision to take with counsel before any document leaves the company.
Table 2 - Powers exercisable without the director being present
Cooperation between authorities and its limits outside the Union
The mechanism of the CPC Regulation
Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 of 12 December 2017 on cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws has applied since 17 January 2020 and is directly applicable in every member state. It covers intra Union infringements and widespread infringements, the latter defined in particular as the same illegal practice committed by the same trader in at least three member states. French law implements it through articles L. 511-10 and L. 512-18 of the Consumer Code. Requested authorities answer within thirty days and take enforcement measures within six months, and final decisions may be published, including by naming the trader.
The limit when facing a third state
This is where the framework stops. The Regulation creates reciprocal obligations between the authorities of the member states and binds no authority of a third state. Article 32 provides that exchanges with the authority of a third country are possible only within the framework of a bilateral assistance agreement concluded with that country, and article L. 512-19 of the Consumer Code separately allows cooperation with the authorities of OECD member countries. Whether either route is open with a given Gulf state is a question to verify on the file. Distance does not provide shelter: it shifts the authority's leverage towards what it can do unilaterally in France.
Measures that can be taken without you
The injunction and its periodic penalty payment
After an adversarial procedure, investigators may order a professional to comply within a reasonable period which they set (article L. 521-1 of the Consumer Code). That injunction may be backed by a daily periodic penalty payment not exceeding 3,000 euros, the total liquidation being capped at 300,000 euros. Where the breach is punishable by a fine of at least 75,000 euros, the periodic penalty payment may be set by reference to the worldwide turnover excluding tax of the last closed financial year without exceeding 0.1 % of it, the total being capped at 5 % of that turnover. The injunction may itself be publicised at the professional's expense (article L. 521-2), as may a sanction decision (article L. 522-6).
Requisitions targeting the online interface
Article L. 521-3-1 of the Consumer Code addresses the situation that concerns foreign operators most directly. Where the author of the practice cannot be identified or has not complied with an injunction, the authority may, by way of requisition, order the display of a warning message and, where the offence is punishable by at least two years of imprisonment, order de-referencing, the restriction of access, or the blocking of a domain name for up to three months renewable once. The period for implementation may not be less than forty eight hours, so a channel through counsel in France able to act the same day has to exist beforehand.
Table 3 - Administrative measures, caps and reaction times
What we see in practice
The second recurring pattern is purely logistical, and it costs more than any argument on the merits. A registered letter arrives at the French registered office, or at a domiciliation provider, and sits unopened. By the time it is scanned and forwarded to the Gulf, a substantial part of the one month adversarial period has already run. We then see directors reply directly by email, at night their time, in their own words, believing they are being cooperative. Those messages become part of the file and are read as admissions. The time difference compounds it: a request landing late in the Paris afternoon is read the following morning in the Gulf, and a response drafted that evening reaches the service a full working day later. In the files we handle, the single most useful measure taken before any inspection is a monitored French reception address and a named contact in France with authority to acknowledge, request time and coordinate the answer.
The adversarial phase and representation of an absent director
What the authority must send you
A copy of the report establishing breaches punishable by an administrative fine is sent to the person concerned (article L. 522-4 of the Consumer Code). Before any decision, the authority informs that person in writing of the contemplated sanction, states that they may be assisted by counsel of their choice, and invites written and, where applicable, oral observations (article L. 522-5), the period being one month (article R. 522-2). Sanction decisions must be reasoned in writing (articles L. 211-2 and L. 211-5 of the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration).
Assistance and representation
The right to be assisted or represented is explicit. The person concerned may present written and, on request, oral observations, and may be assisted by counsel or represented by an agent of their choice (article L. 122-1 of the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration). For a director in the Gulf, that is the decisive text: the one month adversarial phase does not require you to be in Paris, it requires someone lawfully empowered to act there. Establishing that representation properly, and early, determines whether the observations arrive within the period, in the right form and before the right service.
Hearings: on site or on summons, with no remote right
Article L. 512-10 of the Consumer Code knows only two arrangements for gathering statements: on site or on summons. Where there are plausible reasons to suspect that the person heard committed an offence, article 61-1 of the code of criminal procedure applies with the rights it confers, including the right to remain silent. Nothing creates a right to be heard by videoconference from a third state: article 706-71 of that code covers hearings within French territory or with a member state of the Union under a European investigation order. How a summons should be answered from abroad is an assessment for counsel on the wording received.
Deadlines and notifications across time zones
The limitation of the administration's action and the appeal deadline
The administration's action is time barred after three full years from the day the breach was committed where the fine incurred exceeds 3,000 euros for a natural person or 15,000 euros for a legal entity, provided no act aimed at investigating, establishing or sanctioning it has intervened (article L. 522-2 of the Consumer Code), the period being one full year below those thresholds (article L. 522-3). On the other side, the administrative court may only be seised within two months from notification of the contested decision (article R. 421-1 of the Administrative Justice Code), increased by two months for persons residing abroad (article R. 421-7).
Why the months should not simply be added up
The temptation, reading those texts from Dubai, is to add the months and conclude that there is ample time. That conclusion is unsafe. Time limits are enforceable only if they and the available remedies were stated in the notification (article R. 421-5), and articles R. 421-1 to R. 421-3 do not derogate from texts introducing special time limits of a different duration (article R. 421-4). A prior administrative appeal brought within the period interrupts it (article L. 411-2 of the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration). The calculation has to be resolved on the file, against the instrument actually received.
Electronic channels and the practical handling of notifications
Electronic routes exist and help when the addressee is several hours ahead of Paris. Any person may address the administration electronically without being required to confirm in another form (article L. 112-8 of the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration), and acknowledgements are provided for, expressly including for users residing abroad (article L. 112-11). Where the administration must notify by registered letter, that may be done electronically, but the express prior agreement of the person concerned is required (article L. 112-15). Setting up a reliable reception channel, with counsel in France receiving and answering within the period, is the most useful step a director abroad can take.
What distance does not protect against
The obstruction offence
It is prohibited to obstruct the exercise of the functions of authorised investigators (article L. 512-4 of the Consumer Code), obstruction being punished by two years of imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 euros, capable of being raised to 10 % of the average annual turnover (article L. 531-1). Those texts refer in general terms to obstruction; they do not create a specific offence of failing to attend a summons issued by consumer affairs investigators, article 78 of the code of criminal procedure concerning summonses issued by a judicial police officer. That distinction is real but narrow, and where a given non response falls is an assessment for counsel.
Collection, publicity and the life of the business
The fact that an administrative fine may be difficult to collect outside the Union does not make the file harmless. The limitation period for collection is extended where the person liable is established outside the Union and no assistance instrument of similar scope applies, publicity is independent of payment, and enforcement remains available on assets located in France. Our analysis of what is actually enforceable when a French fine targets a company based outside the EU covers that question in detail.
Frequently asked questions
Can the French consumer authority act against my company if it has no French entity?
Yes, where the practice is implemented in France or produces its effects there (article L. 132-1 of the Consumer Code). No establishment, no employee and no French registration is required for that connecting factor to be satisfied. In practice, an online store directed at French consumers, priced in euros and delivering to French addresses will generally be within scope.
Does a choice of foreign law and jurisdiction in my terms protect me?
No. Under article 6 of the Rome I Regulation, a choice of law may not deprive the consumer of the mandatory protection of the law of their habitual residence where the professional directs its activity to that country, and article L. 232-6 of the Consumer Code states that the protection is not set aside even where the applicable law is that of a third country. Under article 18.1 of the Brussels I bis Regulation, the consumer may sue before the courts of their own domicile.
How does the authority get my documents if my systems are hosted abroad?
Through the company itself. Investigators may require the communication of documents of any kind and obtain or copy them by any means and on any medium (article L. 512-8), have access to software, stored data and algorithms (article L. 512-11), and may require substantiation of commercial claims including where the evidence is held by a manufacturer established outside French territory (article L. 512-15). The physical location of the data is not the operative question.
Can the French authority get help from an authority in the Gulf?
The CPC Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2017/2394) binds only the authorities of EU member states. Article 32 provides that exchanges with the authority of a third country are possible within the framework of a bilateral assistance agreement concluded with that country, and article L. 512-19 of the Consumer Code separately allows cooperation with the competent authorities of OECD member countries. Whether either route is open with a given state has to be verified on the file.
Can I be represented rather than travel to France?
The adversarial phase expressly allows it. Article L. 522-5 of the Consumer Code states that you may be assisted by counsel of your choice, and article L. 122-1 of the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration allows the person concerned to be assisted by counsel or represented by an agent of their choice. There is, by contrast, no right to be heard by videoconference from a third state. Setting representation up early enough for the one month period of article R. 522-2 to be usable is the practical point.
What happens if I simply do not respond to a letter received from France?
The procedure continues without you. The one month period runs, the authority may impose the fine by a reasoned decision once it has expired, an injunction may be issued with a daily penalty payment, a requisition affecting your online interface may be implemented within a period that cannot be less than forty eight hours, and publicity may be decided. The cost of silence is not the absence of a decision. It is a decision taken on the administration's version of the facts alone.
Conclusion
Running a company from Dubai that sells in France does not remove you from the reach of the French consumer authority. The connecting factor is the practice and its effects in France, the investigators' powers carry no condition of nationality or residence, documents held abroad can be required through the company, and injunctions, requisitions against the online interface and publicity can all be decided without anyone travelling. Cooperation between authorities is dense inside the Union and conditioned on a bilateral agreement outside it, but that limit shifts the authority's leverage rather than removing it.
What distance genuinely changes is the handling of the file: post arriving at an address nobody monitors, a one month adversarial period consumed by travel and time zones, a forty eight hour requisition read three days late. Those are logistical failures with legal consequences, and they turn a defensible position into a definitive decision. Companies and directors based outside the European Union have every interest in organising, before a file opens, a reception and response channel through counsel reachable in France.
About the author
Guillaume Leclerc is an avocat admitted to the Paris Bar, practising through SELARL Victoris, 34 Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris. His practice is centred on French consumer-protection and competition enforcement: DGCCRF, DDPP and DREETS inspections, requests for communication of documents, adversarial proceedings on contemplated sanctions, administrative fines and appeals before the administrative courts. He is regularly instructed by companies and directors established outside France, works in French and English, and handles files remotely, including the reception of notifications at a French address and representation during the adversarial phase. Further detail is available on the firm's page on French consumer authority proceedings, and enquiries can be sent through the contact page.
Last reviewed: September 2026.
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