FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Diane Bandon-Tourret and Agathe Clarac, LexCase
1. Product Safety 1.1 Product Safety Legal Framework In France, product safety is governed by sev - eral regulations, depending on the nature of the products and their intended use, as well as by general or sector-specific legislation. In France, consumer law, understood as all the legal and regulatory provisions designed to protect the consumer (any natural person acting for pur - poses which do not fall within the scope of their commercial, industrial, craft, liberal or agricul - tural activity) has been particularly developed under the influence of EU law. The Consumer Code has been comprehensively overhauled to make the texts easier to read and the regulations more accessible, by the Order of 14 March 2016 for the legislative part and the Decree of 29 June 2016 for the regulatory part. It is now divided into eight books dealing respec - tively with consumer information and com - mercial practices, formation and performance of contracts, credit, conformity and safety of products and services, powers of investigation and follow-up to inspections, dispute resolution, handling of over-indebtedness, approved con - sumer protection associations and consumer institutions and is regularly the subject of reform. The new European Regulation (EU) 2023/988 of 10 May 2023 on general product safety, published 13 days later, has come into force in France on 13 December 2024 (hereinafter the GPSR). This new key instrument on product safety replaces the General Product Safety Directive (Directive 2001/95/EC of 3 December 2001 on general product safety) and the Directive on products intended to be foodstuffs (87/357/EEC). The GPSR imposes a general safety obligation. Only safe products (ie, products that do not pre -
sent any risk or only acceptable minimal risks under normal conditions of use) may be made available on the EU market, with any unsafe product being presumed to be dangerous. A product is presumed to meet the general safe - ty requirement if it complies with the specific UE or, subsidiarily, local regulations applicable to it for the protection of consumer health or safety. Failing this, reference may be made to national and international standards, voluntary certifica - tion systems and codes of good practice; rea - sonable consumer expectations. In other cases, the safety of a product with the general safety requirement is assessed by taking into account the following elements in particular, when they exist. • Non-mandatory national standards transpos - ing European standards applicable to the product other than those whose reference is published in the Official Journal of the Euro - pean Union in accordance with Article 10 (7) of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012. • Voluntary certification schemes or similar third-party conformity assessment frame - works, in particular those conceived to sup - port Union law. • International standards. • International agreements. • European Commission recommendations establishing guidelines for product safety assessment. • National standards drawn up in the member state in which the product is made available. • The state of the art and technology, including the opinion of recognised scientific bodies and expert committees. • Product safety codes of good practice in force in the sector concerned.
71
CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook