To prevent the iPhone 12 from being banned in France, Apple is reportedly working to release a software update that is said to bring down the radiation levels to accommodate the request of French regulators. Before being officially released back in 2020, it was reported that Apple knew about this problem and instructed its employees to stay quiet about the whole thing. It does not appear that there will be any legal repercussions against the California-based giant this time.
What most articles missed to explain is that France has stricter rules on radio wave than the EU. France mesures with the phone at 0 mm (skin contact) while EU and all manufacturers use 5 mm gap.
Updating 23/10/10: this is partially wrong, the iPhone has a feature that will increase power when not near a body. The french testing protocol doesn’t take into account that. This feature will be disabled for iPhone in France with the risk of slightly lower cellular reception.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213923