France: The administration recognizes the “right to make a mistake”

A law of August 10, 2018 establishes a right to make mistakes in order to improve relations between the administration and the citizens. This means that an enterprise that has failed for the first time to observe a rule applicable to a situation, or that has made a material error in the information, cannot be subject to the administration of a financial penalty or total or partial deprivation of a benefit due. The law generalizes the procedure of mediation between the Urssaf and the citizens, which previously existed only experimentally: claims concerning the relationship between a social security organization and its users may be presented before a person designated as mediator within each body.