Is dropshipping legal in France?

Q&A • Law

Is dropshipping legal in France?

Dropshipping is a sourcing method, not a special legal regime. Nothing is relaxed: you are the seller, therefore the responsible party, even if you never handle the product.

Short answer

  1. Yes, dropshipping is legal in France if it follows the same rules as any distance selling.
  2. The seller is fully liable for performance of the order (art. L221-15), even if the supplier ships.
  3. The legal guarantees of conformity and hidden defects lie with you, not the supplier.
  4. On imports below €150, VAT is reported through the IOSS one-stop shop.
  5. Advertising a lead time the supplier cannot meet amounts to a misleading commercial practice.

What the law puts on you

  • Legal notices, terms and pre-contractual information, like any French shop.
  • The 14-day withdrawal right, including when the product comes back from another continent.
  • The real delivery time, not the theoretical one advertised by the supplier.
  • Import VAT and customs duties, to be built into the displayed price.
  • Product compliance: CE marking, French-language instructions, safety.

A real example

Example: a shop advertises “5-day delivery” on a product shipped from Asia that arrives in 28 days. The customer withdraws and asks for international return costs. The seller bears them, having failed to inform properly. And under-declaring customs value, common in this model, is customs fraud, not optimisation.

Common mistakes

  • Sending the customer to the supplier for a return or a guarantee.
  • Reusing the supplier’s photos and descriptions without checking the claims.
  • Not stating that the product ships from outside the EU, when duties and lead times depend on it.
  • Showing a price excluding customs duties that the customer discovers on delivery.

How 4shopy helps

  • Dispatch time is set per product, so you can advertise a realistic lead time per supplier.
  • The shipping country can be displayed on the product page, before adding to the cart.
  • Returns and complaints are centralised on the shop side, as the seller’s liability requires.
  • Product descriptions are editable and multilingual, to replace the supplier’s copy.

See also