Doing Business In (Insert Country Name Here) - Department of ...

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Traditional retail food outlets (Magasins de détails traditionnels):Traditional outlets include a broad array of establishments, from corner grocery stores,bakeries, and neighborhood butcher shops to open air markets to frozen and gourmetfood stores. The aggressive expansion of mass distribution outlets threaten thesetraditional outlets, which account for 17 percent of the country’s total retail fooddistribution and represent a total of about 50,000 stores. To survive, these outlets musthave flexible store hours, product variety, and special services such as home delivery.Small neighborhood store chains offer U.S. suppliers entry into the French market.Gas Station-Marts (Boutiques de stations d’essence):Gasoline companies, having lost about 60 percent of their gas sales to hypermarkets,have equipped their gas stations with small, self-service food stores. These outlets arefrequently used for stop-gap purchases and accounted for about one percent of Frenchfood sales in 2009.Central Buying Offices (Centrales d'achats):In addition to contacting the largest store chains listed above, introducing products viacentral buying agencies is an excellent distribution method. A complete list of Frenchcentral buying agencies, the Atlas de la Distribution, is available for € 244.00 (freightincluded) from:L.S.A - Libre Service Actualités (Groupe GISI)Tel : (33) 1.77.92.99.14 or (33) 1.77.92.92.92Fax: (33) 1.77.92.98.15Website: http://www.lsa.fr/Mass retail distribution Directory:Tel: (33) 1.34.41.62.50Fax: (33) 1.34.41.62.51Website: http://www.tradedimensions.frSelling Factors/TechniquesReturn to topSelling your product or service in France is similar to the U.S. Buying decisions aremade on the basis of quality, price and after-sales service. The principal difference inFrance is, in fact, the language. Since August 1994, the "Loi Toubon" requires that alladvertising, labeling, instructions and promotional programs be in French, so we stronglyrecommend close contact with the Commercial and Agricultural sections in theEmbassy, as well as arranging for local legal representation.2/18/2010 Country Commercial Guide for France 20INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT, U.S. & FOREIGN COMMERCIAL SERVICEAND U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, © 2010. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES.
Electronic CommerceReturn to topIn July 2003, the EU started applying Value Added Tax (VAT) to sales by non-EU basedcompanies of Electronically Supplied Services (ESS) to EU based non-businesscustomers. U.S. companies that are covered by the rule must collect and submit VAT toEU tax authorities. European Council Directive 2002/38/EC further developed the EUrules for charging Value Added Tax. These rules were indefinitely extended followingadoption of directive 2008/8/ECU.S. businesses mainly affected by the 2003 rule change are those that are U.S. basedand selling ESS to EU based, non-business customers or those businesses that are EUbased and selling ESS to customers outside the EU who no longer need to charge VATon these transactions. There are a number of compliance options for businesses. TheDirective created a special scheme that simplifies registering with each Member State.The Directive allows companies to register with a single VAT authority of their choice.Companies have to charge different rates of VAT according to where their customers arebased but VAT reports and returns are submitted to just one authority. The VATauthority responsible for providing the single point of registration service is thenresponsible for reallocating the collected revenue among the other EU VAT authorities.Key Link: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/how_vat_works/eservices/index_en.htmElectronic commerce of consumer goods and services:Electronic commerce is booming in France. Product and services sales, as well as thenumber of web sites on the Internet, have increased dramatically in recent years. Retailonline sales estimates (Business-to-Consumer) in 2008 were USD 28 billion (20 BillionEuros) and accounted for 80 percent of total direct marketing sales. The categories ofproducts reporting the best market share in 2008 is consumer electronics (computers/laptops, LCD TVs, GPS, cameras, mobile phones - 52 percent) and cultural products(books, CDs, DVD’s and video games - 46 percent). Internet sales increased by 25percent in 2008. The number of Internet users in France has increased dramatically andin 2008 over 21 million people made purchases online.Trade Promotion and AdvertisingReturn to topGeneral LegislationLaws against misleading advertisements differ widely from Member State to MemberState within the EU. To respond to this imperfection in the Internal Market, theCommission adopted a Directive, in force since October 1986, to establish minimum andobjective criteria regarding truth in advertising. The Directive was amended in October1997 to include comparative advertising. Under the Directive, misleading advertising isdefined as any "advertising which in any way, including its presentation, deceives or islikely to deceive the persons to whom it is addressed or whom it reaches and which, byreason of its deceptive nature, is likely to affect their economic behavior or which forthose reasons, injures or is likely to injure a competitor." Member States can authorizeeven more extensive protection under their national laws.2/18/2010 Country Commercial Guide for France 21INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT, U.S. & FOREIGN COMMERCIAL SERVICEAND U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, © 2010. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES.
Page 1 and 2: Doing Business in France:2010 Count
Page 3 and 4: CRS Report for Congress. Order Code
Page 5 and 6: Return to table of contentsChapter
Page 7 and 8: Key Link: http://eurlex.europa.eu/L
Page 9 and 10: Statutory representatives work acco
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Page 13 and 14: premises (e.g., door-to-door sales)
Page 15 and 16: Direct Marketing over the InternetT
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Page 19: Department stores have lost some ma
Page 24: Food SupplementsRegulation 1925/200
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Page 29 and 30: Copyrightimports of IPR-infringing
Page 31 and 32: Under the French intellectual prope
Page 33 and 34: Designs and ModelsDesigns and model
Page 35 and 36: At the same time the firm is provid
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Page 39 and 40: Le Nouvel Economiste: [http://www.n
Page 41 and 42: Travel & Tourism (TRA)OverviewRetur
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Page 45 and 46: Best ProspectsReturn to topFortunat
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Page 49 and 50: OpportunitiesReturn to topThe curre
Page 51 and 52: ServersEstimated at $562 million, t
Page 53 and 54: ResourcesReturn to topInternational
Page 55 and 56: then redistribute those minutes to
Page 57 and 58: Wastewater Sludge TreatmentWastewat
Page 59 and 60: Medical Equipment (MED)OverviewRetu
Page 61 and 62: Automotive parts Equipment (APS)Ove
Page 63 and 64: Plastics (PMR)OverviewReturn to top
Page 65 and 66: Education Services (EDS)OverviewRet
Page 67 and 68: Textile (TXT)OverviewReturn to top2
Page 69 and 70: Major trade shows:• Lingerie trad
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Trade events:Direct Marketing Show
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Beverages, including Mineral Water,
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Import DocumentationNon-agricultura
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WEEE & RoHSEU rules on waste electr
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Customs Regulations and Contact Inf
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Website: http://www.douane.gouv.fr/
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governmental organizations, such as
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Products manufactured to standards
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LEMVP/Laboratoire d'Essais des Mat
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UTAC/Union Technique de l'Automobil
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international markets. Register onl
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Trade AgreementsReturn to topEU web
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Web ResourcesReturn to topNational
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President Sarkozy in 2007. In an Am
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Most businesses must deal with sign
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decisions are made by the Ministry
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trader's card, please consult the I
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Western and Southern StatesIFANA Sa
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Protection of Property RightsReturn
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Exchange. Options are traded on the
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2/18/2010 Country Commercial Guide
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is generally deemed acceptable as l
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strongly endorses their eventual ac
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France actively pursues public corr
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Republic, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Ara
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Following the economic downturn, th
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of U.S. firms are established in Fr
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Stock by country of destination (Bo
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the terms requires the issuance of
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also offer hedging against interest
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The Bank of New York Mellon (repres
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subsequent public tenders related t
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around 14% was lent outside the EU.
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U.S. Banks in FranceAMERICAN EXPRES
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United States Visas.gov: http://www
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Professional equipment may be tempo
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United States Department of Agricul
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ANEC - European Association for the
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The Trans European Policy Studies A
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REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR ANIMAL, PLANT
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Office of Capacity Building and Dev
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MINISTRY OF LABOR: http://www.trava
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Chemical Industry AssociationUNION
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Paints & Inks Industry AssociationF
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French BanksFEDERATION BANQUAIRE FR
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