France has not adopted national legislation based on or influenced by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Signatures.

According to Art. L851-3, telecommunication providers can be required to automatically analyse connection data in their networks to detect terrorist threats.

The EU Directive on Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) covers traditional broadcasting services as well as audiovisual media services provided on-demand, including via the Internet. Art. 13.1 provides for Member States to secure a minimum 30% share of European works in the catalogues as well as "ensuring prominence" of those works. "Prominence" involves promoting European works by facilitating access to such works using any appropriate means to ensure their prominence. The Directive has been implemented by Member States in different ways, ranging from very extensive and detailed measures to a mere reference to the general obligation to promote European works.
In France, the EU Directive was transposed into domestic law through Decree 2021-793 on On-Demand Audiovisual Services. According to Art. 28 of the Decree, service providers must reserve a minimum share of the total number of feature-length cinematographic and audiovisual works made available to the public, specifically at least 60% for European works and 40% for original French-language works.
Furthermore, under Art. 14 of the Decree, providers of audiovisual streaming services operating in the French market are required to invest 25% of their annual turnover in France into European or French-language productions if they exhibit at least one cinematic work that has been released in theatres within the previous 12 months. In all other cases, the investment requirement is reduced to 20%. The specific details of this investment can be established in an agreement with the Superior Audiovisual Council.

Under the "Act aiming to preserve the interests of defence and national security in the framework of exploiting mobile radioelectric networks", any components used to connect consumers with mobile telecommunications networks are subject to prior approval by the Prime Minister, whose decision is based on the permanence, integrity, security and the availability of networks, as well as the confidentiality of the messages transmitted. Fourth-generation networks and older generations are exempted.

Under the Certification framework for cloud service providers, only providers who are certified under the SecNumCloud standard have access to public procurement tenders for cloud services. The SecNumCloud standard requires providers to use root certificates emitted by the certification authority of an EU Member State in the presence of the provider.

According to Art. L851-1 of the Internal Security Code, the Prime Minister can authorise the collection of connection data and other technical data for law enforcement purposes without a court order. Furthermore, under Art. L851-2, in exceptional cases, real-time online surveillance of individuals connected to a terror suspect can be authorised. The maximum number of authorisations for this is determined by the Prime Minister.

The Directive 2000/31/EC (E-Commerce Directive) is the legal basis governing the liability of Internet Services Providers (ISPs) in the EU Member States and includes a conditional safe harbour. Not all Member States have transposed the relevant articles consistently, leading to divergent national case law that could cause legal insecurity on an EU level.
The E-Commerce Directive was transposed into French law by Law No. 2004-575 of 21 June 2004. According to this law, the hosting provider is liable for the stored contents only if (i) he was actually aware of the illicit character of the content or if (ii) he did not delete the illicit content or did not forbid access to such content promptly after becoming aware of its illicit character.

The Directive 2000/31/EC (E-Commerce Directive) is the legal basis governing the liability of Internet Services Providers (ISPs) in the EU Member States and includes a conditional safe harbour. Not all Member States have transposed the relevant articles consistently, leading to divergent national case law that could cause legal insecurity on an EU level.
The E-Commerce Directive was transposed into French law by Law No. 2004-575 of 21 June 2004. According to this law, the hosting provider is liable for the stored contents only if (i) he was actually aware of the illicit character of the content or if (ii) he did not delete the illicit content or did not forbid access to such content promptly after becoming aware of its illicit character.

It is reported that France imposes an identity requirement for SIM registration. Anyone wanting to purchase a SIM card has to provide their national ID card or a passport in case of foreigners to activate a new prepaid SIM card.

Under Art. 11 of the Act related to the fight against the manipulation of information, platform operators have to implement measures to fight against the spread of false information that may disrupt public order or affect general elections. To this end, they have to provide a complaint mechanism and are invited to establish complementary voluntary measures such as blocking accounts that massively spread disinformation and increasing transparency over their algorithms and the sources of information.

France mandates functional and accounting separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. Functional separation is mandated for operators with significant market power, according to Art. L38-2 and Art. R9-5 of the Postal and Electronic Communications Code. Accounting separation is mandated only in some cases: it may be considered for operators declared by the Authority to be dominant on the market when ex-ante regulation has not ensured effective competition and significant competition or market failure problems remain

Art. L42-1 of the Postal and Electronic Communications Code provides that the Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques, des Postes et de la Distribution de la Presse (ARCEP, Electronic Communications, Postal and Print Media Distribution Regulatory Authority) shall allocate authorisations for the use of radio frequencies under objective, transparent and non-discriminatory conditions, taking into account the objectives set out in Art. L. 32-1, in particular, regional planning needs and the objective of protecting the environment. These authorisations may be refused by the ARCEP for one of the following reasons: safeguarding public order, national defence or public security; the exercise of effective and fair competition for the benefit of users; the proper use of frequencies; the applicant's technical or financial inability to sustainably meet the obligations arising from the conditions under which it carries out its activity; the applicant has been sentenced to one of the penalties mentioned in Arts. L. 36-11, L. 39, L. 39-1, L. 39-1-1 and L. 39-4.

It is reported that the Postal and Print media distribution Regulatory Authority (ARCEP), the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

Under Arts. L-111-1 and L-111-2 of the Heritage Code, public archives that are kept because of scientific interest or ongoing administrative utility are national treasures. As such, they must be stored on French territory, even in electronic form.

According to the Art. L102 C of the Tax Procedures Handbook, if invoices are sent in electronic form, taxable persons may not store invoices in a country not linked to France by an agreement providing for mutual assistance or not providing immediate online access rights, downloading and use of the whole of the data concerned. Taxable persons are obliged to declare the place of storage of their invoices and any modification of that place where it is located outside France.