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Europe
US firm told to translate documents into French
2006-03-03
A French subsidiary of the US conglomerate General Electric was found guilty Monday of breaching the country's language laws for producing English-only versions of health and safety guidelines.

Confirming a lower court ruling, the appeal court in Versailles west of Paris ordered GE Medical Systems to pay 580,000 euros (690,000 dollars) to the company's works committee and to the General Labour Conferation (VCGT) trade union, which brought the case to justice.

The company was also fined 20,000 euros for every computer and print document that has not been translated in three months' time.

The case was brought under a 1994 law intended to defend the role of the French language in public life.

Posted by:lotp

#8  FWITW: Aall US companies require the US-based companies they deal with to have their Quality Management System documents in (at least ) English, so this is not unreasonable. This is also applicable to companies doing DOD work, regardless of the company's nationality. I think that if the full story were known, they were probably asked nicely several times and then after being told, "OK we're on it" for many moons, the fun-meter pegged and the laywers took over.
Posted by: USN, ret.   2006-03-03 16:14  

#7  No big deal _ there's plenty of people in the Dead Languages Departments of universities that wouldn't mind part time jobs.
Posted by: Shilet Throse6198   2006-03-03 15:30  

#6   And how hard is could it be - computers can translate most of it, and the technical words stay in English anyway.

Not in France. All English technical language words have Frenchified equivalents. ]They'll pick up some liability risk for poor translations as well as the immediate cost of translation. Pull out, Jeffrey.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2006-03-03 09:57  

#5  If it was not for GE (and other 1940's era US companies) this would not be an issue: Siemens would be making all the med-tech equipment for France, and all the docs would be in German only. Of course, that would not be a problem, because German would be the national language of France.
Still, it makes no sense that GE would not print documents in whatever the local language is where the equipment or services are being used. And how hard is could it be - computers can translate most of it, and the technical words stay in English anyway.
Posted by: Glenmore   2006-03-03 09:38  

#4  There is no need for GE to base operations in France, other than onsite techs and maintenance engineers. It may even turn out cheaper to move operations to other offices in the Netherlands, Italy, or better yet, to New Europe, though the sales commutes may be tough.
Posted by: ed   2006-03-03 07:50  

#3  Yeah, and you need to start rewriting your medical prescription in Latin again.
Posted by: Snaiper Jeretch8186   2006-03-03 06:46  

#2  GE medical will pay up and quit doing business in France at all. That is how this usually goes.
Posted by: SPoD   2006-03-03 06:46  

#1  Hey - obey local laws. I don't care where you do business.
Posted by: gromky   2006-03-03 02:58  

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