To Marseille, a control on a market between professionals of the 14e district, launched at 2 a.m., made it possible to catch producers selling fruits and vegetables, undoubtedly falsely certified made in France, reveals Agence France-Presse. Indeed, it is impossible for traders to justify their origin.
In total, seven legal proceedings must be opened for deceptive practices, said the Bouches-du-Rhône prefecture on Tuesday. During the control, carried out by agents of competition and the repression of fraud, sellers, “probably in difficulty to justify the origin of the products, deliberately abandoned their goods” on the spot, specified the prefecture.
“The invoices, the labeling of the packages or the quality” of the foodstuffs inspected have brought to light two misleading commercial practices: the “Frenchification” of foodstuffs from abroad and that of the “false producer”; merchants pretending to be the producers of the goods, in other words.
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4.5 tons of abandoned goods
Among the abandoned goods whose origin is questioned, no less than 4.5 tons of tomatoes, courgettes, peppers and other fruits and vegetables. The products will be redistributed in the food aid circuit.
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The deceptive commercial practice of francizing products is punishable by two years’ imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 euros. As a reminder, a major investigation had been opened by the Tarascon prosecutor’s office (Bouches-du-Rhône), in July 2021, following the francization of fruits and vegetables from Spain.
