Every commercial website in the EU is subject to a thick layer of obligations : legal notices, consumer T&Cs, cookies under ePrivacy and GDPR, transparent online ranking under the Omnibus Directive and the P2B Regulation, content moderation under the Digital Services Act, and product compliance under the General Product Safety Regulation. Dreyfus drafts and audits e-commerce sites to keep them legally watertight in the EU.
Reviewed by Nathalie Dreyfus, European trademark and patent attorney. Last updated : May 2026.
Three reasons international e-merchants treat compliance as a growth lever, not a cost centre.
Heavy fines and class actions. The DGCCRF (French consumer authority), the CNIL (data) and the French competition authority (P2B, antitrust) can all sanction non-compliant e-commerce sites. Beyond fines, group actions allow consumer associations to coordinate damages claims.
Search and trust signals. Conformity-friendly cookie banners, accessible T&Cs and transparent pricing now influence both consumer trust and SEO. Non-compliant sites lose conversions and rankings.
New EU rulebook. Since 2022-2024, the Omnibus Directive, P2B Regulation, Digital Services Act and the new EU General Product Safety Regulation have added obligations on ranking transparency, reviews authenticity, recommender systems and product traceability.
Since 2022, the Omnibus Directive forces e-merchants to disclose how online reviews are verified, display prior price for any promotion and identify the trader behind each offer.
Source: Directive (EU) 2019/2161, Omnibus Directive.
The P2B Regulation requires online intermediation services and online search engines to provide greater transparency to business users, including on ranking parameters, changes to terms and conditions, internal complaint-handling and mediation mechanisms, and any differentiated treatment given to their own goods or services.
Source: Regulation (EU) 2019/1150, P2B.
The Digital Services Act, generally applicable since 17 February 2024, requires online platforms and market places to implement notice-and-action mechanisms, provide transparency on content moderation decisions, and, for online marketplaces, verify key trader identity information before allowing traders to offer products or services to consumers in the EU.
Source: Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, DSA.
The General Product Safety Regulation, applicable since December 2024, applies to all consumer products sold online, with traceability, recall and incident reporting obligations.
Source: Regulation (EU) 2023/988, GPSR.
Mandatory under the French LCEN : identity of the publisher, hosting provider, contact details, registration numbers, applicable professional rules where relevant.
Mandatory for B2C and recommended for B2B. Define delivery, payment, withdrawal rights, returns, warranty, dispute resolution, jurisdiction.
Under ePrivacy and GDPR, granular consent must be obtained before non-essential cookies and trackers. CMP implementation is highly recommended.
Mandatory under GDPR Articles 13 and 14 : identity and contact details of the controller, purposes of processing, lawful basis, data retention period, recipients, international transfers, data subject rights, right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, and DPO contact details where applicable.
Verified reviews methodology, prior price for promotions, trader identity, ranking parameters, recommender system transparency.
Consumer rights. 14-day withdrawal period, two-year legal warranty of conformity, French legal warranty against hidden defects, geo-blocking rules for cross-border EU sales.
B2B online sales. P2B Regulation, late payment law, distance contracts, B2B platform compliance, marketplace contracts with sellers.
Cross-border issues. Applicable law and jurisdiction, VAT, customs and Intrastat, OSS and IOSS regimes, currency, language requirements.
Influencer marketing. French influencer marketing law (Law No. 2023-451 of June 9, 2023) , disclosure of partnerships, regulated products (alcohol, finance, gambling, surgery).
Pricing and promotions. Loyalty programs, discounts, bundles, loss leaders, dynamic pricing, comparator sites, prior price rule under Omnibus.
Identification of gaps against EU and French e-commerce rules, prioritised remediation.
Legal notices, T&Cs, privacy and cookies policies, GDPR notices.
Specific deployment of the new EU consumer and platform rulebook.
Seller onboarding, KYBC, notice-and-action, content moderation.
Applicable law, jurisdiction, VAT, OSS/IOSS, geo-blocking compliance.
Defence in DGCCRF investigations, class actions, individual disputes.
Legal notices (mentions légales), terms and conditions of sale (CGV), privacy policy and cookies policy are mandatory. Depending on activity, additional documents may be required : T&Cs of use, professional disclosures, prior information for distance contracts.
Yes if you target consumers in France or the EU. The GDPR, the Digital Services Act and consumer protection rules apply extraterritorially. You may need an EU representative for data and a registered presence for VAT purposes.
Adopted in 2019 and applicable since 2022, the Omnibus Directive strengthens EU consumer protection rules, particularly on price reduction announcements, online reviews, ranking transparency and marketplace transparency. Businesses must indicate the prior price when announcing a price reduction, disclose whether and how consumer reviews are verified, and inform consumers whether the seller is a trader or a private individual.
The Digital Services Act, in force since 2024, requires online marketplaces to verify the identity of professional sellers (know your business customer), provide notice-and-action mechanisms for illegal content and report serious offences.
Non-essential cookies require explicit, granular, prior consent through a CMP-style banner. Refusing must be as easy as accepting. Consent must be documented. The CNIL has imposed multi-million-euro fines on websites violating these rules.
No, not safely. When targeting French consumers, key consumer information must be available in French, including information on price, product characteristics, withdrawal rights, legal guarantees and contractual terms. English may be provided in addition, but French should be available for mandatory consumer information.
