Why Tesla Faces Crackdown $58K Daily Fine Over Its Marketing
The French Ministry of the Economy has threatened to hit Tesla with a $58,000 daily fine if the automaker doesn't end what the department considers deceptive commercial practices. France is the latest country to take issue with the Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature's name since the software isn't fully autonomous or operating at Level 5 autonomy. The ministry's investigation began in 2023 following reports to France's consumer complaint service SignalConso.
In addition to ruling that Tesla was responsible for misleading business practices regarding the fully autonomous driving capacity of its vehicles and the availability of certain options and trade-in offers, the department viewed Tesla as not specifying the date, deadline, or location for car deliveries, not detailing if a purchase was made on credit, and having customers make payments before the withdrawal period enjoyed by the consumer when they finance their purchase with an assigned credit ended, according to Electrek. Additionally, Tesla was described as not providing receipts when customers made partial cash payments and not rightfully refunding within the deadlines for orders. Tesla has four months to comply with the ministry's order before fines begin.
In April, China began cracking down on Tesla's FSD marketing with new rules banning car companies from using words like "self-driving," "autonomous driving," "smart driving," and "advanced smart driving." Instead, China's government recommended automakers describe features like FSD as "combined assisted driving." This regulation arrived after Tesla had already changed FSD's name in China to "Intelligent Assisted Driving" following its China launch, implying the transition occurred as the investigation unfolded.
While Tesla doesn't face any federal ban on its FSD terminology in the U.S., California lawmakers banned the company from using the marketing terminology in 2022. An excerpt from California's law reads: "A manufacturer or dealer shall not name any partial driving automation feature, or describe any partial driving automation feature in marketing materials, using language that implies or would otherwise lead a reasonable person to believe, that the feature allows the vehicle to function as an autonomous vehicle, as defined in Section 38750, or otherwise has functionality not actually included in the feature," according to Autobody News.
FSD is also hitting roadblocks in Stockholm, Sweden, as the city's officials have rejected Tesla's request to test the tech in its streets. Stockholm's traffic department cited safety risks to its citizens and infrastructure and "heavy pressure from other ongoing innovation tests," Teslarati reports. In Australia, an ongoing lawsuit filed in February accuses Tesla of overpromising on self-driving features while flagging other issues like instances of phantom braking.
Tesla's regulatory scrutiny from France is part of a global trend targeting the automaker's sales practices. The $58,000 fine Tesla faces from France's Ministry of the Economy, China's new guidelines, and California's ban show how consumer protection is becoming more critical as daily driving functions become increasingly automated and confusion about their capabilities grows. However, Tesla's recent sales struggles could impact its decision to play ball in hopes of maintaining accessibility to major global markets.
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