guilty of presenting foreign fresh produce as French

 Carrefour store found guilty of presenting foreign fresh produce as French

Widespread checks in 2024 found many shops fall foul of general commerce rules

The origin of fresh products must be labelled in supermarkets

Published Thursday 11 September 2025 - 08:17. Modified - 09:01

A French supermarket has been fined €21,000 for labelling fresh produce as being of French origin when in truth it came from abroad.

In total, the ‘Carrefour’ hypermarket in Chalezeule, Doubs in eastern France, falsely labelled 19 légumes and mushrooms as being from France. 

“All communication regarding the origin and place of production of fruits and vegetables must be fair,” said the Direction générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes (DGCCRF) in a press release about the incident.

“Substituting the foreign origin… in order to promote the products in the eyes of consumers, misled them as to the true place of production of these foodstuffs, even though this is an essential characteristic that often determines the consumer's purchasing decision,” it added. 

The fine was issued by the Besançon public prosecutor to the store manager, who accepted it. Falsely labelling the origin of food is prohibited under Article L.121-3 of France’s Consumer Code**. 

Maximum penalties can reach a two-year imprisonment and €300,000 fine for an individual responsible, and up to 10% of a store’s earnings.

Such cases are not as rare as consumers may hope. 

In 2024, then-Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire promised 10,000 checks and controls on supermarket practices. 

In 34% of cases, supermarkets were found to be in breach of regulations, with the DGCCRF issuing close to 2,000 warnings and reporting more than 500 supermarkets to courts. 

A recent case saw a winemaker jailed for listing Spanish wine as ‘champagnes’, and some of the bottles were sold in major French supermarkets.

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French winemaker jailed for selling fake champagne made with Spanish wine

Bottles of the fake drink were sold in Leclerc supermarkets as well as9ö exported abroad

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The champagne was sold in supermarkets in France. 

Published Wednesday 03 September 2025 - 17:17

A French winemaker has been jailed for producing fake champagne and selling it in France and abroad. 

Didier Chopin, 56, produced hundreds of thousands of bottles of fake champagne between 2022 and 2023, using wines from Spain and the Ardèche combined with flavourings and carbon dioxide. 

He produced ‘champagnes’ under many different brand names, including Champagne Didier Chopin, which were sold in France and abroad, including at national French supermarket chain Leclerc. 

He was sentenced to four years in prison, of which he will serve 18 months, at the Reims Criminal Court, in the Champagne region, on September 2. 

Champagne is subject to an Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée, which means that only wines produced within the Champagne region, and that meet specific quality standards, may be called Champagne. 

Mr Chopin, who had originally denied the charges, was found guilty of fraud, false designation of origin and misappropriation of corporate assets. 

His wife, who was also charged, was given a two-year suspended prison sentence. 

Mr Chopin and his wife were fined €100,000 each and their holding company, SAS Chopin, was fined €300,000. 

Mr Chopin was also ordered to pay several million euros in damages to civil parties and victims, including buyers and the Comité Champagne, the organisation that brings together the main players in the champagne industry, from growers to merchants. 

The couple were permanently banned from running their own company and may not work in any champagne-related role for five years. 

During the trial, Mr Chopin gave conflicting figures of how many bottles he had produced, all in the hundreds of thousands. Some estimates put the number at well over 1.5 million. 

Mr Chopin fled to Morocco after former employees revealed his fraud in 2023. He was arrested for writing fraudulent cheques and eventually extradited back to France. 

He faces more charges on customs violations linked to the export of the fake champagne on February 3. 

It is not the first case of wine fraud to hit the headlines in France. 

In October 2024, police busted an international fraud ring that was selling poor quality bottles of wine for €15,000 each pretending they were top vintages. 

Noted: (** Article L121-3 of the French Consumer Code

A commercial practice is also misleading if, taking into account the specific limitations of the means of communication used and the surrounding circumstances, it omits, conceals or provides in an unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner any material information or where it does not indicate its true commercial intent where this is not already apparent from the context.

Where the means of communication used imposes space or time limits, in assessing whether material information has been omitted, account should be taken of those limits as well as of any steps taken by the trader to make that information available to the consumer by other means.

In any commercial communication constituting an invitation to purchase and intended for the consumer mentioning the price and characteristics of the goods or service offered, the following information shall be deemed to be material:

1° The main characteristics of the goods or service;

2° The address and identity of the trader;

3° The price inclusive of all taxes and delivery charges payable by the consumer, or how they are calculated, if they cannot be established in advance;

4° The terms of payment, delivery and performance, where these are different from those usually practised in the area of professional activity concerned;

5° The existence of a right of withdrawal, if this is provided for by law; )

Original in French 🇫🇷

Article L121-3

Une pratique commerciale est également trompeuse si, compte tenu des limites propres au moyen de communication utilisé et des circonstances qui l’entourent, elle omet, dissimule ou fournit de façon inintelligible, ambiguë ou à contretemps une information substantielle ou lorsqu’elle n’indique pas sa véritable intention commerciale dès lors que celle-ci ne ressort pas déjà du contexte.

Lorsque le moyen de communication utilisé impose des limites d’espace ou de temps, il y a lieu, pour apprécier si des informations substantielles ont été omises, de tenir compte de ces limites ainsi que de toute mesure prise par le professionnel pour mettre ces informations à la disposition du consommateur par d’autres moyens.

Dans toute communication commerciale constituant une invitation à l’achat et destinée au consommateur mentionnant le prix et les caractéristiques du bien ou du service proposé, sont considérées comme substantielles les informations suivantes :

1° Les caractéristiques principales du bien ou du service ;

2° L’adresse et l’identité du professionnel ;

3° Le prix toutes taxes comprises et les frais de livraison à la charge du consommateur, ou leur mode de calcul, s’ils ne peuvent être établis à l’avance ;

4° Les modalités de paiement, de livraison et d’exécution, dès lors qu’elles sont différentes de celles habituellement pratiquées dans le domaine d’activité professionnelle concerné ;

5° L’existence d’un droit de rétractation, si ce dernier est prévu par la loi ;

6° La qualité de professionnel ou non du vendeur qui propose des produits sur une place de marché, telle qu’elle a été déclarée à l’opérateur de la place de marché en ligne.

Lorsque le consommateur peut rechercher des produits offerts par différents professionnels ou par des particuliers à partir d’une requête consistant en un mot clé, une phrase ou la saisie d’autres données, sont réputées substantielles les informations mises à sa disposition concernant les principaux paramètres qui déterminent le classement des produits qui lui sont présentés et leur ordre d’importance. Ces informations doivent figurer dans une rubrique spécifique de l’interface en ligne, directement et aisément accessible à partir de la page sur laquelle les résultats de la requête sont présentés.

Lorsqu’un professionnel donne accès à des avis de consommateurs sur des produits, les informations permettant d’établir si et comment le professionnel garantit que les avis publiés émanent de consommateurs ayant effectivement utilisé ou acheté le produit sont réputées substantielles.