Fraud Enforcement announces Thursday that it conducted a national survey of 1,000 companies claiming French manufacturing for their products and found 15% of the violations, 14 of which resulted in a criminal complaint for “deceptive business practices.”
At the end of this survey carried out in 2021 among 1,013 establishments, the DGCCRF specifies that “it sent 87 warnings, 54 compliance protections, 2 administrative complaints and 14 criminal complaints for deceptive commercial practices regarding the origin of the products,” says a statement.
These controls focused on non-food products, such as masks and hydroalcoholic gels sold massively during the health crisis, from various sectors: jewelry, glasses, cosmetics, textiles, furniture, indicates the DGCCRF, while the 10th edition of the “Made in France show until Monday in Paris. They included online sales sites, to “verify the veracity of the allegations about their origin, national (“Made in France”) or local (“made in Brittany”…), and anomalies were found in 15% of the professionals consulted, indicates the DGCCRF.
Mattress seller, cosmetics company, underwear brand…
Among the professionals named: a mattress seller in a market that “could not justify either the French design or manufacture” of its products, while flyers and a billboard indicated “French manufacture/design” or “European”, was subject to of a complaint sent to the Public Ministry for “deceptive commercial practices”.
The same occurs with a company in the cosmetics sector -whose name the DGCCRF does not disclose-, with a communication strategy aimed at the French origin of its products labeled “Made in France” while “almost three quarters of the products of this brand are made in Spain”, and that “only the packaging was made in France”.
As for the distance-selling site of an underwear brand “claiming to have the Origine France Garantie (OFG) label”, although its products were not on the OFG’s list of certified products, its “website was closed after of control” and was also the subject of a complaint sent to the Public Ministry for “deceptive commercial practices”.
It had been the subject of numerous consumer reports, indicates the DGCCRF. “In view of the growing consumer appeal of French and local products, and to support industrial relocation in France,” the Fraud Prevention Department will continue its checks on the origin of products, it said, recalling that consumers with doubts about the true origin of a product you can make a report on the SignalConso site.
Source: BFM TV
