Accredited consumer association

Verified 22 November 2022 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

One consumer association a for inspection missionsinform, of advisor andhelp consumers at to settle disputes in everyday life. It can act as a preventive measure to find amicable solutions and to the legal capacity of to represent interests private or collective consumer before the courts.

It is an association to which an authority recognizes the right to defend the interests of consumers and which has obtained approval.

Authorization shall be granted to a consumer association which satisfies the following three conditions:

  • It shall, at the date of its application, justify one year of existence
  • During this year, it justifies a real activity to defend the interests of consumers (production and dissemination of publications, holding of information meetings and permanent staff)
  • At the date of application, it shall have at least 10 000 members contributing to a national association or a number deemed representative for a local, departmental or regional association

The request for approval shall be addressed to the Directorate responsible for the protection of the population of the registered office of the association.

Approval is granted for 5 years renewable.

The approval of an association national is granted by ministerial order.

The approval of an association local, departmental or regional is granted by order of the prefect of the department in which the association has its registered office.

The approval or refusal decision shall be notified within 6 months of the acknowledgement of receipt. The refusal decisions are substantiated.

Legal consultations

An authorized consumer association may provide practical and legal information and free legal consultations exclusively:

  • to its members in disputes with a third party
  • and on consumer issues related to its field of intervention.

Legal defense of individual interests

Only an approved national association may claim compensation for damage suffered by several consumers where such damage is caused by the same trader and has a common origin.

The association may be mandated by at least 2 consumers concerned (joint action) or by a larger group of consumers (group action).

Joint action can be brought before all courts (civil, criminal) and class action is brought only before civil courts.

Group proceedings relate only to compensation for pecuniary damage (in money) resulting from material damage suffered by consumers. For example, the association may defend the owners of a dwelling against a company of the building that has carried out defective repairs that damage the building. The property damage exists because owners must take measures either to relocate or to have the consequences of the wrong intervention repaired.

If you are looking for an approved national association, you can ask the Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF):

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Legal defense of collective interests

Only an approved national association may to bring a civil action where facts cause direct or indirect damage to the collective interest of consumers.

It can thus ask the judge to order a professional, possibly on a periodic penalty payment (compulsory payment of a sum of money until the judge's request has been executed), the following acts:

  • Cease acts that are not in accordance with the law or are dangerous
  • Delete an illegal clause in the standard contract it offers to consumers or in any contract in the course of performance

The association may also ask the judge to:

  • Order the deletion of an unfair (unbalanced) term or to disregard it in all identical contracts concluded by a given trader with consumers which are in the course of performance
  • Obliging the trader concerned to inform, by all means and at his own expense, the consumers concerned by such a clause

The request for renewal shall be addressed to the Directorate responsible for the protection of the population of the registered office of the association.

Approval is granted for 5 years renewable.

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