Tesla has been ordered by France’s Ministry of the Economy to correct several “deceptive business practices” within four months or face a daily fine of €50,000 ($53,800), according to a summary released by the country’s Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF).
The investigation, launched in 2023 following numerous consumer complaints filed via the French government’s SignalConso platform, found that Tesla repeatedly violated national consumer protection laws. The DGCCRF concluded that the automaker failed to properly inform buyers of delivery timelines and locations, required premature payments before credit terms elapsed, and delayed refunds after order cancellations.
Most critically, the French authorities found that Tesla misled customers regarding the “fully autonomous driving capacity” of its vehicles. In its report, the DGCCRF accused Tesla of engaging in “misleading commercial practices” by selling its Full Self-Driving (FSD) package under the name Capacité de conduite entièrement autonome for €7,500, despite the software neither providing autonomous operation nor being activated in France. Tesla’s FSD, which is categorized as Level 2 driver-assist technology, still requires full driver supervision and is not considered “self-driving” under EU regulations.
The FSD suite has yet to be approved in Europe, leaving French customers unable to use a feature they paid for. The French ruling follows growing scrutiny over Tesla’s long-standing promises around autonomy, including CEO Elon Musk’s repeated claims that Teslas would become appreciating assets by generating income as autonomous taxis.
As reported by Electrek, DGCCRF’s findings also included incomplete contracts that lacked delivery dates or locations, failure to issue receipts, and inaccurate vehicle trade-in details. France’s Ministry of the Economy gave Tesla four months to bring its practices into compliance or begin paying the daily fine.
The news comes as Tesla faces additional legal pressures in France, including a lawsuit from Tesla owners seeking to terminate leases over what they describe as CEO Musk’s politicization of the brand.
Source: Economie.gouv.fr