Since 11 June 2023, the French Directorate General in charge of Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (“DGCCRF”) can accompany its injunctions to comply with certain provisions of the French Consumer Code with daily penalties of up to 3,000 Euros or, for serious offences, up to 0.1% of a company’s worldwide turnover.
The DGCCRF can now accompany its injunctions to comply with certain provisions of the French Consumer Code with daily penalties. These changes result from the French law of 9 June 2023 (which mostly regulates social media influencers) and entered into force on 11 June 2023.
Previously, the DGCCRF could, following an adversarial procedure, order professionals to comply with certain provisions of the French Consumer Code (e.g., misleading commercial practices, comparative advertising, etc.) within a reasonable time-limit. It could also order that this injunction be made public by the professional. However, the DGCCRF did not have the power to accompany such injunctions with daily penalties without referring the case to a French court.
Now, under Article L. 521-1 of the French Consumer Code, the DGCCRF can directly accompany its injunctions with a daily penalty of up to:
- 3,000 Euros, with the total amount of penalties being capped at 300,000 Euros, or
- 0.1% of the worldwide turnover (excluding tax) generated by the relevant legal entity during its last financial year, if the infringement is punishable by a fine of at least 75,000 Euros, with the total amount of penalties being capped at 5% of its worldwide turnover (excluding tax).
The daily penalty runs from the day following the expiration of the time-limit set for the professional to comply with the injunction.
Moreover, under Article L. 521-2 of the French Consumer Code, if a professional fails to make the injunction public following such a request by the DGCCRF, the DGCCRF can now issue a formal notice to do so under daily penalty of 150 Euros from the date of notification of the formal notice until the actual publication, with the total amount of penalties being capped at 50,000 Euros.
It can be noted that the DGCCRF already had similar powers in terms of daily penalties for injunction concerning certain infringements to the French Commercial Code (e.g., brutal termination of business relations, etc.) under Article L. 470-1 of the French Commercial Code. This recent reform follows the general trend of reinforcing the DGCCRF’s administrative powers.
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