France product safety for non-EU sellers (DGCCRF)

You are selling a consumer product to buyers in France. GPSR applies as in the rest of the EU (see GPSR: what it is, and who it reaches). France adds four things on top: enforcement by the DGCCRF, safety information in French, a second recall declaration on RappelConso, and a criminal offence for failing the Regulation’s corrective-measure duties. The Regulation asks for a responsible person based in the EU (Art. 16(1)). Articles L. 421-1 and L. 421-2 of the Code de la consommation, and L. 423-3, name no French establishment. Only the RappelConso account does.

The DGCCRF enforces GPSR in France

The DGCCRF is the control authority under the Regulation. For non-food products it also runs alerts, withdrawals and recalls. Food goes to the DGAl and vehicles to the DGEC. The DGCCRF local services process the reports: a DD(ETS)PP in a department, a D(R)EETS in a region (DGCCRF).

What reaches it:

• Your own notifications. A dangerous product is reported through the Safety Business Gateway, and the DGCCRF passes each one to the competent local service. The acknowledgement it sends does not approve your information or your measures.
• Consumer reports on SignalConso.
• Alerts that authorities of other EU countries place on the Safety Gate network.

When it has a report, the DGCCRF can take emergency measures: seizures, holding goods back, withdrawals and recalls, orders suspending sale, and prohibition decrees. An online marketplace must remove an offer, make access impossible or show an explicit warning within two working days of the DGCCRF’s order. The EU side is in Safety Gate and Safety Business Gateway.

The law behind it is the Code de la consommation. L. 421-2 says products intended for consumers, or likely to be used by them, satisfy Regulation (EU) 2023/988Regulation (EU) 2023/988, General Product Safety RegulationThe whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office.. L. 421-1 defines the economic operators who carry the duties. The law of 22 April 2024 (no. 2024-364) wrote both, and they apply from 13 December 2024.

Safety information goes in French

The Regulation leaves the language of instructions and safety information to the country where the product is sold (Art. 9(7), 11(4)). France sets it in the law of 4 August 1994: French is compulsory in the designation, offer, presentation and instructions for use of a good, imported goods and online offers included.

The DGCCRF sheet spells it out:

• All the information needed to use the product safely is in French, including labels and instructions.
• The French version is as understandable as the original. A word-for-word translation is not required.
• Engraved, moulded or woven foreign inscriptions and common terms stay as they are. A symbol or pictogram may sit next to an untranslated mention if they say the same thing or complement each other and do not mislead.
• Documents between professionals who are not the end users, such as invoices, are outside the duty.

The label content itself is in GPSR label and instructions and safety information.

A recall is also declared on RappelConso

A recall of a consumer product needs three things in France. Two are the EU rule, and the third is French.

The RappelConso declaration is made as soon as the recall is carried out, and updated if its characteristics change. It covers every recall since April 2021. Since 11 March 2026 it also gives the quantity of products sold and the unit (Service-Public). Medicines and medical devices go to the ANSM. Second-hand products, antiques and products to be reconditioned are outside it. L. 423-3 also asks you to keep an up-to-date count of the products withdrawn or recalled, available to the DGCCRF officers.

A seller outside France meets one snag. A RappelConso account is for an establishment domiciled in France with a SIRET number (terms of use, user guide, section 5.2). The terms only describe routes between members: a member can authorise another member, found by its SIRET, to publish a recall in its name, on a declaration on honour that a contract allows it, or can pass a recall form to another professional who completes it before it goes to the State. They do not say how a seller with no French establishment makes the declaration.

What a breach costs

The EUR 600,000 offence is narrow. The article names a manufacturer, an importer and a marketplace, and only for the measures of Art. 9(8) and 11(8) (corrective action, informing consumers, notifying through the Safety Business Gateway) and the duties of Art. 22(12). It is not a fine for any product-safety breach. Other breaches of the operator duties carry the fifth-class fine in the third row. The amounts for the other breaches of the Regulation, and the other countries, are in GPSR fines.

What you do as a seller outside France

1. Name a responsible person established in the EU, in any country. Its name and contact details go on the product, the packaging, the parcel or a document in it (Art. 16(3)). See EU Responsible Person.
2. Write the labels, instructions for use and safety information in French.
3. If you learn a product is dangerous, take the corrective measure at once, inform consumers and report through the Safety Business Gateway (Art. 9(8)). Your report in France is processed by the local DGCCRF service.
4. Declare the recall on RappelConso. A RappelConso account needs a French establishment with a SIRET number, and the terms of use do not set out the case of a seller without one.
5. Keep a count of the products withdrawn or recalled, ready for the DGCCRF officers.

If you do nothing

The DGCCRF officers can take samples, hold goods back while checks run, and seize non-conforming goods that endanger consumers. They can check products sold online under an assumed identity. Where products are dangerous or non-conforming, the administration can order, by an arrêté (an order), the suspension of marketing, withdrawal, recall or destruction, and the broadcast of warnings. Not following such an order is a criminal offence (DGCCRF, L. 512-26, L. 512-29, L. 521-5 and following, L. 532-3 and L. 532-4). A marketplace that receives an order removes your offer, disables access to it or shows an explicit warning within two working days of the order (GPSR Art. 22(4)). A breach of the operator duties of the Regulation is a fifth-class contravention, and a recall you do not declare on RappelConso is one for each product concerned.