Business Contracts

The contract for works or services (contrat de louage d'ouvrage or d'entreprise), as envisaged by the drafters of the Civil Code, refers to the performance of manual or mechanical work that may consist in the manufacture , construction , integration, installation , fitting, shaping, transformation , repair , renovation or maintenance of a movable or immovable thing.
Thus, a company is bound by a c …

Material services

The contract for works or services (contrat de louage d'ouvrage or d'entreprise), as envisaged by the drafters of the Civil Code, refers to the performance of manual or mechanical work that may consist in the manufacture , construction , integration, installation , fitting, shaping, transformation , repair , renovation or maintenance of a movable or immovable thing.

Thus, a company is bound by a contract for work when it undertakes to carry out a material service on equipment that it had not itself supplied but that had been entrusted to it by a client in order to remedy a breakdown . Likewise, an agreement by which a company is entrusted with the manufacture of tanks with plastic shells designed to replace metal tanks, according to precise specifications in terms of temperature, pressure and shock resistance, is a contract for services (contrat d'entreprise) . This is also the case for a contract to produce a token-cutting station, a custom-built machine to be used as part of an innovative project by the client, according to criteria expressly specified by the latter . A contract for services is also a contract by which an undertaking is entrusted with the supply and installation of a heat pump, a service which involves choosing a model suited to the size of the house and its environment, as well as specific work, since this complex transaction, which meets a particular need, requires prior study and is carried out in several phases . The same applies to a contract to have a ring cut to size , or a contract whereby a motorist entrusts his vehicle to a garage for repair of the rear wheel bearings .

In real estate matters, architects, specifically referred to in Article 1779, are bound by a contract for services. However, the assignment entrusted to the architect by virtue of the contract does not consist solely in the provision of material services. In addition to overseeing the work and its conformity with the plans, the architect's contract may include a design phase prior to the start of construction, which ends with the preparation of the consultation documents for undertakings prior to the choice of the project owner /client (maître de l'ouvrage) .

CA Reims, 17 April 2018, LawLex202200004132JB; CA Versailles, 7 September 2021, LawLex202200004226JBJ.

CA Chambéry, 17 January 2023, LawLex202400006122JBJ.

CA Basse-Terre, 26 October 2020, LawLex202200004137JBJ, cited above.

CA Lyon, 30 November 2020, LawLex202200004141JBJ.

CA Angers, 8 April 2022, LawLex202200004134JBJ.

CA Metz, 24 February 2022, LawLex202200004220JBJ.

CA Basse-Terre, 26 October 2020, LawLex202200004137JBJ; see, for a recent illustration: CA Aix-en-Provence, 7 July 2022, LawLex202400006121JBJ.

CA Dijon, 1 February 2024, LawLex202400006119JBJ.

CA Reims, 17 April 2018, LawLex202200004132JBJ, above.

CA Versailles, 7 September 2021, LawLex202200004226JBJ, aforementioned See, in the same vein, CA Paris, 27 June 2019, LawLex202200004131JBJ, for a contract by which an undertaking was entrusted with the study, modeling and implementation of models of a watch in the shape of a champagne cork and a champagne cork cap ejector designed by its customer, so that the latter could present them to various champagne houses to make derivative objects.

CA Angers, 8 April 2022, LawLex202200004134JBJ, cited above.

CA Metz, 24 February 2022, LawLex202200004220JBJ, cited above.

Business Contracts

281. Material services

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

281. Material services

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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