French Consumer Authority Lawyer: DGCCRF, DDPP and DREETS Proceedings

Lawyer for DGCCRF, DDPP and DREETS proceedings: defending foreign companies and their directors in France

The short answer

• No French establishment is required: a company selling to French consumers, supplying a French distributor or operating a marketplace accessible from France can be inspected and fined by the French consumer protection authority.
• Who inspects: the DGCCRF designs the national campaigns and decides sanctions, the DDPP carries out field inspections at departmental level, and the DREETS handles business-to-business matters such as statutory payment terms.
• The first deadline is short: where an administrative fine is contemplated, article L. 522-5 of the Consumer Code requires written observations, and article R. 522-2 sets that period at one month.
• Obstruction is a criminal offence: refusing access or withholding documents from authorised officers is punishable by two years' imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 euros under articles L. 512-4 and L. 531-1.
• Appeal window: administrative decisions are challenged within two months under article R. 421-1 of the Code of Administrative Justice, extended by two further months for persons residing abroad under article R. 421-7.
• Language and presence: the procedure is conducted in French, but a director based outside France is not required to attend in person for most of it.

If your company sells to French consumers, supplies a French distributor or runs a marketplace accessible from France, you can be inspected by the French consumer protection and competition authority without having any establishment in France. We act for foreign companies, their French subsidiaries and their directors at every stage of these proceedings, from the first request for documents to the appeal against a fine, working from Paris, in English, on French procedural deadlines.

Most foreign operators discover this authority through a letter they were not expecting: a request for documents citing article L. 512-8 of the French Consumer Code, a copy of an inspection report, or a call from a French customer who has just been summoned. The framework is unfamiliar, the time limits are short, and the first written answer often shapes the rest of the file.

What the DGCCRF is, and what the DDPP and DREETS do

One national directorate, two local networks

The DGCCRF (Direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes) is the directorate of the French Ministry of the Economy responsible for consumer protection, product conformity and the fairness of commercial transactions. It is not a court: it is an investigating and sanctioning administration with its own powers of inspection, injunction and fine, and with a direct channel to the public prosecutor when the facts amount to a criminal offence.

Its field work is carried out by two local networks. The DDPP (Direction départementale de la protection des populations) is the departmental service that inspects shops, warehouses, importers and websites, takes product samples and interviews company staff. The DREETS (Direction régionale de l'économie, de l'emploi, du travail et des solidarités) is the regional service handling business-to-business matters such as statutory payment terms and unfair practices between professionals.

The powers investigators actually use

Authorised officers may enter professional premises between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. under article L. 512-5 of the Consumer Code. They may require production of any document under article L. 512-8, in whoever's hands it is held, which means your logistics provider, your marketplace or your French accountant can be asked for your files. Article L. 512-11 gives access to software, stored data and algorithms, and article L. 512-15 allows officers to demand the evidence substantiating a commercial claim even where that evidence is held by a manufacturer established outside France. Findings are recorded in an inspection report which, under article L. 512-2, stands as proof until the contrary is shown.

Who we act for

• Foreign sellers and e-commerce operators shipping to French consumers from another EU Member State, the United Kingdom, the Gulf, the United States or Asia.
• Marketplaces and platforms whose third-party listings, ranking practices, reviews or price displays are questioned.
• Importers and first distributors treated as the party responsible for first placing goods on the French market.
• Manufacturers and brand owners whose labelling, safety information or environmental claims are examined after an inspection at a French customer.
• Directors and legal representatives personally exposed, including those living outside France, since the liability of a company does not exclude that of the individuals who committed the same acts.
• French subsidiaries and branches of foreign groups needing a single point of contact able to report to a parent company in English.

We also act for foreign suppliers whose French client was contacted first, the situation covered in our guide for the foreign supplier whose French customer has been summoned by the consumer authority.

What we see in practice

In the files we handle, the damage is rarely done by the inspection itself. It is done in the ten days that follow, before anyone has read the file as a whole. A director abroad receives a request for documents, forwards it to an operations manager, and a spreadsheet leaves the company the same afternoon. Nobody has checked what the request covers, whether the period claimed is the period actually inspected, or whether the figures reconcile with what a French customer has already handed over. We also see companies answer in English to an administration that works in French, which slows everything down and produces an account nobody can align later. The recurring pattern is not bad faith, it is speed: a file assembled in a week without coordination fixes a factual record that takes months to unpick.

At which stage we intervene

Inspection and requests for documents

The earliest useful stage is the on-site inspection or the first written request for documents. What is handed over, in what form and with what reservations, is a legal decision rather than an administrative formality. Refusing outright is dangerous: obstructing authorised officers is a criminal offence under articles L. 512-4 and L. 531-1, punishable by two years' imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 euros. Answering without analysis is equally dangerous, because the documents produced fix the factual record.

Interview and adversarial phase

Where the findings suggest a criminal offence, company officers are summoned for a free interview, with the right to be assisted by a lawyer and the right to remain silent. Where an administrative fine is contemplated, article L. 522-4 requires a copy of the inspection report to be sent to the person concerned, and article L. 522-5 requires the administration to state in writing the sanction it envisages and to invite observations. Article R. 522-2 sets that period at one month, which is short for a group gathering documents across several entities and time zones.

Injunction, fine, publication and appeal

The administration may issue an injunction to comply under article L. 521-1, with a daily penalty of up to 3,000 euros and, where the underlying fine is at least 75,000 euros, a penalty calculated on worldwide turnover. Article L. 521-2 allows publication of the injunction at the company's expense, and article L. 522-6 provides an equivalent mechanism for the sanction decision. Where the practice appears on an online interface and an injunction has not been complied with, article L. 521-3-1 opens the way to de-indexing, access restriction and blocking of a domain name. Administrative decisions are challenged within two months under article R. 421-1 of the Code of Administrative Justice, extended by two further months for persons residing abroad under article R. 421-7.

How we work

Response times. Deadlines in this field are counted in days and weeks. We aim to give a first reading of your position within 24 to 48 working hours of receiving the file, and to agree a written plan for the deadline that is actually running before anything substantive reaches the administration.

Working language. The procedure itself is conducted in French: the inspection report, the requests, the observations and the decision are French-language documents. Our client-facing work is in English. We advise, report and hold calls in English, and we draft the French submissions. Where your group has counsel in another jurisdiction, we work alongside them rather than duplicating their work.

Remote handling from Paris. Your physical presence in France is not required for most of the procedure. We correspond with the DGCCRF and the relevant DDPP or DREETS, and we attend interviews and hearings. Directors based outside France frequently run an entire file by video conference and secure document exchange, an approach discussed in our article on the Dubai-based director of a company audited in France.

Contact

If an inspection has taken place, a request for documents has arrived, an interview has been scheduled or a fine has been notified, the useful first step is a short call to identify the deadline that is running and what must be preserved before it expires. You can reach the firm at 34 Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris. Where enforcement outside France is the real question, our analysis of the enforcement of a French administrative fine outside the European Union is a useful starting point.

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This page was written by Guillaume Leclerc, avocat at the Paris Bar, 34 Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris. Practice centred on French consumer protection and competition enforcement, working in French and English, with files handled remotely for clients established outside France.

From an unexpected letter to a closed file

Typical engagements, with indicative budgets. These are ranges observed on comparable matters, not a price list, and no fee arrangement carries any promise as to the outcome of a file. Fees are agreed in writing in an engagement letter before any work starts.

• First review of an inspection file or a request for documents: reading the inspection report, identifying the deadline that is running and what the administration is building, with a written note.
  • Budget: from 900 euros excluding VAT.
• Response to a request for documents (article L. 512-8): scope of the request, form and reservations of the production, coordination with a French customer or subsidiary already contacted.
  • Budget: from 900 euros excluding VAT.
• Preparation of and attendance at a free interview: of a director or of a French employee, including the choice between answering and remaining silent.
  • Budget: from 1,200 euros excluding VAT.
• Written observations in the adversarial phase before an administrative fine: the stage where the amount, the publication measure and the qualification are still open.
  • Budget: from 1,200 euros excluding VAT, depending on technical scope.
• Challenge to a fine or a publication measure before the administrative courts: structured in stages.
  • Budget: hourly rates from 300 euros excluding VAT, fixed and capped arrangements available.
• Pre-inspection review: labelling, French-language information, price displays, reviews and environmental claims, for operators selling to French consumers from abroad or running a dropshipping model into France.
  • Budget: fixed fee from 1,500 euros excluding VAT.

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