A decree published on 30 December 2022, taken in application of the French law of 16 August 2022 on emergency measures to protect purchasing power, allows the Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) to strengthen its communication on its injunction measures.
In order to reinforce the dissuasive nature of the consequences of its controls, the DGCCRF already had the possibility of publishing the identity of the sanctioned companies (“Name and shame”) in the case of administrative sanctions. By a decree published on 30 December 2022, taken in application of the law of 16 August 2022 on emergency measures for the protection of purchasing power, the DGCCRF’s possibilities of communication regarding administrative injunctions are now extended.
The injunction measures taken by the DGCCRF have a corrective purpose, to put an end to an illegal practice within a short period of time. They consist, for example, in ordering a trader to cease an illegal act, to comply with the regulations or to remove an illegal clause. They are complementary to administrative sanctions or criminal proceedings, which may lead to penalties. They are complementary to administrative sanctions or criminal proceedings, which can lead to financial penalties or even imprisonment.
The publication of injunctions is now possible in the entire field of action of the DGCCRF, whether in the fight against restrictive competition practices (removal of a clause creating a significant imbalance) or in the field of consumer protection (cessation of a misleading commercial practice, …
