The phone doesn't meet the regulations which means it can't be sold. Whether they're good regulations or not is another matter.
From the ANFR publication [1] «141 mobile phones, including Apple’s iPhone 12, have recently been tested to check compliance with limit SAR values».
I suspect they simply weren't tested before. sigh.
[1] https://www.anfr.fr/liste-actualites/actualite/temporary-wit...
A few years ago a French tech journal caught several huge chinese PSU maker who claimed they had all certification but during actual testing they would catch fire or short under 50% of rated load.
Which also means the fix can be a software update. That was (according to the news) the likely way this would be resolved.