ABSTRACT
The Law of 21 July 1983 represented a major landmark in the development of French consumer safety regulation for it strengthened the laws, introduced a general safety concept and established a Consumer Safety Commission. This chapter overviews the development of consumer safety law in France. It describes the role and function of the main actors in this field, and outlines the legal provisions and French approach to standardisation. The Direction generale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la repression des fraudes (DGCCRF) is an agency with two arms. One is economic dealing with matters of competition policy and marketing practices, and the other, which is concerned, deals with the technical issues relating to the conformity of goods and services with quality and safety requirements. In France standardisation work is carried out by the Association Francaise de Normalisation (AFNOR) and by the Union Technique de l'Electricite (UTE).
