French Consumer Law is a comprehensive and comparative overview of French and EU law in this field, covering: advertising, unfair commercial practices, conditions for the validity of contracts, unfair terms, product conformity, latent defects, product safety.

French Consumer Law

French television advertising is primarily subject to the provisions of Law No 86-1067 of 30 September 1986 on the freedom of communication. This law laid down the principle of “freedom of communication by electronic means”, which it defines as any provision to the public or to categories of persons by a process of electronic communication, signs, signals, images, sounds or messages of any type wh …

National regulation

French television advertising is primarily subject to the provisions of Law No 86-1067 of 30 September 1986 on the freedom of communication. This law laid down the principle of “freedom of communication by electronic means”, which it defines as any provision to the public or to categories of persons by a process of electronic communication, signs, signals, images, sounds or messages of any type which are not regarded as private correspondence (Article 1 and 2, Law No 86-1037). The law also initiated the creation of the CSA (Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel), the independent administrative body set up to guarantee the exercise of broadcasting freedom. 

The rules applicable to advertising, sponsorship and teleshopping on public and private channels are, in accordance with the provisions of Article 33, laid down by Decree No 92-280 of 27 March 1992 relating to television advertising, television sponsorship and teleshopping. Decree No 92-280 transposes, for television services all the European rules, except product placement . As authorized by Directive No 2010/13, the national rules are stricter than those adopted at the European level. 

On-demand audiovisual media services and therefore the provision of advertising messages, sponsorship and TV shopping via that means are regulated by Decree No 2010-1379 of 12 November 2010 on on-demand audio-visual media services, which refers to Decree No 92-280 . Article 2 of Law No 86-1067 defines on demand audiovisual media services as “any communication service to the public by electronic means allowing the viewing of programs at a time chosen by the user and at [the viewer's] request from a catalog of programs of which the selection and the organization are controlled by the provider of this service”. This definition in practice mainly concerns catch-up TV services ("TV replay") or video on demand (VOD).

Other texts can also incidentally apply to audiovisual advertising: the Law of 29 July 1881 on freedom of the press ; Law No 94-665 of 4 August 1994 on the use of the French language , Law No 2009-258 of 5 March 2009 on audiovisual communication and the new public service of television  and Law of 12 May 2010 on the opening up to competition and regulation in the online gambling sector . There are also a number of decrees and ministerial orders regulating this area such as: 

- the Decree  and Order  of 28 November 2006 on, respectively, the promotion of economies of energy in advertising messages by undertakings in the energy sector and on advertising in the energy sector; 

- the Decree  and Order  of 27 February 2007, on, respectively, advertising and promotional messages in favor of certain foods and drinks and on health message to accompany the messages advertising or promoting certain foods and drinks; 

- the Decree of 8 June 2010 on the regulation of commercial communications in favor of operators of gambling and games of chance . 

See Article 14-1 of Law No 86-1067 of 30 September 1986 (added by Law No 2009-258 of 5 March 2009 on audiovisual communication and the new public television service, OJ of 7 March 2009, p. 4321) and  CSA Deliberation No 2010-4 of 16 February 2010 on product placement in television programs, LawLex201300000020JBA, OJ of 5 March 2010.

E.g. Article 14 of Decree No 2010-1379 provides that: "The supply of advertising messages by a provider of on-demand audiovisual media services is governed by Articles 2 to 7, the second paragraph of Article 8, Articles 9 to 12, section III of Article 15 and article 16 of the Decree of 27 March 1992 referred to above".

French Consumer Law

82. National regulation

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Les notions juridiques connexes

82. National regulation

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Les notions juridiques connexes

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