# France

- **Record type**: Jurisdiction profile
- **Short name**: France
- **ISO code**: FR
- **Type**: country
- **Region**: Europe / Western Europe

## In brief

France has 2 recorded AI policy instruments, none of them binding. EU AI Act applies; national AI strategy (phases since 2018) as policy; CNIL AI guidance; competent-authority designation in progress. Regulators include Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL), Direction générale des Entreprises.

## Overview

France applies the EU AI Act and has built its national approach around a national AI strategy launched in 2018 (successive phases to 2025), strong involvement of the data-protection authority CNIL, which publishes practical how-to sheets on AI and data protection, and the AI Action Summit hosted in Paris in February 2025. France has proposed CNIL, the competition and consumer authority (DGCCRF) and ARCOM among its AI Act competent authorities.

## Regulatory status

EU AI Act applies; national AI strategy (phases since 2018) as policy; CNIL AI guidance; competent-authority designation in progress.

## What is binding and what is guidance

Binding: none recorded. Strategy or guidance: National AI strategy; CNIL AI how-to sheets.

## Current priorities

AI Act authority designation, compute and sovereign model investment, public-sector AI use, CNIL guidance on training data and GDPR compliance.

## Regulators

- Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL) — Data-protection authority; publishes AI and GDPR guidance — https://www.cnil.fr/en/ai-how-sheets
- Direction générale des Entreprises — Ministry of the Economy directorate leading the national AI strategy — https://www.entreprises.gouv.fr/

## How to use this profile

- Start from the EU AI Act record for obligations; use this page for the national authorities, penalties and strategy.
- Open the official source on each instrument before relying on any date or obligation.
- Check national data-protection, employment and consumer law that applies to AI systems regardless of the AI Act.

## Official sources

- CNIL: AI how-to sheets — CNIL — https://www.cnil.fr/en/ai-how-sheets
- Stratégie nationale pour l'intelligence artificielle — Ministère de l'Économie — https://www.economie.gouv.fr/strategie-nationale-intelligence-artificielle

## Instruments recorded for this jurisdiction (2)

- **CNIL recommendations on the development of AI systems and the GDPR (AI how-to sheets)** — Guidance, Guidance, non-binding
  - Record: https://aipolicytracker.org/policies/france-cnil-ai-how-to-sheets
  - Context file: https://aipolicytracker.org/policies/france-cnil-ai-how-to-sheets.md
- **Stratégie nationale pour l'intelligence artificielle (National AI Strategy, phases 1–3, 2018–2025)** — National strategy, Adopted, non-binding
  - Record: https://aipolicytracker.org/policies/france-national-ai-strategy
  - Context file: https://aipolicytracker.org/policies/france-national-ai-strategy.md

## Provenance

- **Record page**: https://aipolicytracker.org/jurisdictions/france
- **Official source**: https://www.cnil.fr/en/ai-how-sheets
- **Source document**: CNIL: AI how-to sheets
- **Published by**: CNIL
- **Review status**: verified
- **Confidence**: medium
- **Facts last confirmed**: 2026-09-26
- **Confirmed by**: Bhaskar Bhatt (see https://aipolicytracker.org/reviewers)
- **Retrieved**: 2026-10-27
- **Licence**: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

> This record is a structured summary with a link to the official text. It is not legal advice. Open the official source before relying on any date or duty. How current each record type must be is published at https://aipolicytracker.org/verification; what a record must carry at all is published at https://aipolicytracker.org/coverage.