French Customs Code
In forceWhen customs officers find that an offence referred to in article 414 of the present code or an offence of distance selling or purchasing of tobacco referred to in 10° ofarticle 1810 of the General Tax Code has been committed from an online interface or using an electronic means of communication, customs officers with at least the rank of controller, specially authorised by their district chief, may ask the intermediary to inform them, within a period that they set and which may not be less than three days, whether the online public communication services that he offers or the storage of signals, writings, images, sounds or messages that he uses constituted the means of committing the offence.
After hearing the intermediary's observations, or in the absence of observations within the time limit set, the authorised customs officers may notify the intermediary, by means of a reasoned notice, that the online public communication services offered by the intermediary or the storage of signals, writings, images, sounds or messages provided by the intermediary constituted a means of committing the offence.
After receiving this notice and within the time limit set by the latter, which may not be less than forty-eight hours, the intermediary shall inform the authority that issued the notice of the action it has taken. It shall specify the measures it intends to take or has taken to ensure that the content used as a means of committing the offences referred to in the first paragraph of this article is made inaccessible, and the date on which these measures became effective.
