Association: how to obtain approval to exercise a class action?

The decree of 10 December 2025 authorizes the conduct of group actions since 1^er January 2026. Class action allows a person or body authorized by law to take legal action on behalf of several victims of the same breach in order to put an end to unlawful practices or to obtain compensation for damages suffered.

Non-profit associations and qualified entities wishing to bring a class action before a national court or in another Member State must submit an application for approval to the competent authority to examine their case: DGGCRF (French general directorate for fair trading, consumer affairs and fraud control).

Can you apply for approval?

In order to apply for approval, you must be a regularly registered, accredited and non-profit association. In addition, you must meet certain conditions:

• at least 2 victims must consider that they have suffered damage resulting from the same breach;
• persons must, in order to act, resort to an entity authorized by law: association authorized for this purpose, public prosecutor, entity on the list published in Official journal of the French Republic of the, representative trade union organization.

For actions for failure to fulfill obligations (e.g. stopping an illegal practice), non-profit associations do not need to be registered to bring a class action. However, they must be regularly declared for at least 2 years, demonstrate real, public and continuous activity for at least 24 consecutive months and have in their statutes an object directly related to the interests they intend to defend.

How to apply for approval?

You can apply for approval and consult the list of supporting documents (order of 3 july 2026) necessary for the constitution of your file via this online service: demarche.numerique.gouv.fr.

What happens after your application for approval?

The DGCCRF receives applications for accreditation, checks that your file is complete, sends you a receipt, and then notifies you of its decision to grant or refuse accreditation. The opinion of other administrative authorities may be sought during the examination of an authorization dossier.

The examination of an application for approval is carried out within 3 months (from the acknowledgement of receipt sent after the submission of the complete file). At the end of that period, if the applicant has not received a reply, his application for approval shall be considered to be rejected.

Authorization to exercise a class action is granted for 5 years. It can be renewed via a simple statement of follow-up of its activity to the DGCCRF through the site demarche.numerique.gouv.fr.