Business Contracts

All sellers are obliged to inform buyers about the goods they are selling. However, when acting in a professional capacity, the seller is bound by an obligation to provide information , which requires him to inform the buyer about the characteristics of the item, its conditions of use, and its precautions for use, but does not imply an obligation to endorse a particular option (unlike the duty to  …

Obligation to provide information

All sellers are obliged to inform buyers about the goods they are selling. However, when acting in a professional capacity, the seller is bound by an obligation to provide information , which requires him to inform the buyer about the characteristics of the item, its conditions of use, and its precautions for use, but does not imply an obligation to endorse a particular option (unlike the duty to advise).

The seller must provide the buyer with complete and reliable information on the essential characteristics of the item sold, particularly its chemical , physical and technical properties . To do so, the seller must obtain information from the manufacturer, if necessary, and carry out all necessary checks to ensure the accuracy of this information . Thus, the professional seller is obliged to provide his customer, even if he is a regular user of agricultural machinery, with essential information concerning the lack of compatibility between the two items of equipment purchased, insofar as this information relates to a decisive element of the item sold . Failure to disclose the existence of proceedings that call into question the constructability of the land sold, even if the outcome of the proceedings is uncertain, constitutes a breach of the seller's obligation to inform . Similarly, a seller who fails to inform the buyer of a show horse that it has recently been suffering from colic, or that it has undergone two related surgical operations, fails to disclose, at the time of sale, information concerning the animal's state of health that is crucial to the buyer's consent, given the risk of recurrence of the colic episodes, their very recent nature and the high-level sporting activity for which the horse was intended . According to case law, the seller, who is required to explain clearly what he is required to do under Article 1602 of the Civil Code, fails in his obligation to inform the buyer when he merely states in the promise to sell his land that there is no private or public servitude preventing the exercise of the building permit as issued, even though the land is encumbered by an unmentioned servitude that materially affects its use .

The seller must inform the buyer of the conditions and restrictions governing the use of the goods sold . According to the Court of Cassation, the characteristics of a product, even if obvious, do not relieve the manufacturer of the obligation to provide the user with instructions for use . The professional purchaser of a filtration device must therefore specify that it must be installed upstream of the installation to be filtered  and the manufacturer-seller of a roasting unit must inform the lay purchaser of the need to connect the unit to a hot air and smoke evacuation system .

According to the Court of Cassation, failure to provide information on the conditions of use of the product and the precautions to be taken deprives the user of the means to make proper use of it, in conformity with its intended purpose . The seller must therefore inform the purchaser of the precautions to be taken when using the item sold, and provide him with all the information he needs to make proper use of it . In particular, the seller of a stove must draw the user's attention to the necessity of cleaning it every two weeks . Similarly, manufacturers who supply equipment in parts must provide users with information on technical constraints and installation precautions .

Cass. civ. 1re, 15 May 2002, LawLex200500005850JBJ.

Cass. com, 21 September 2010, LawLex202300007972JBJ, ruling that the manufacturer of polyurethane foams for the building industry must disclose to the buyer the chemical characteristics of its product, without which no professional in the field could use it properly.

Cass. com, 21 October 1997, LawLex200500006094JBJ.

CA Aix-en-Provence, 26 June 2006, LawLex200700000760JBJ.

Cass. 1re civ, 23 April 1985, LawLex200500005936JBJ.

CA Besançon, 10 June 1994, LawLex200500010140JBJ.

CA Paris, 21 March 2002, LawLex200500006958JBJ.

CA Toulouse, 26 September 1983, LawLex200500008737JBJ.

CA Versailles, 7 March 1996, LawLex200600000738JBJ, holding that the seller breached his obligation to inform by providing the buyer, without providing any other reference, with inaccurate information as to the age of the crane in question - in reality, three years older -, which would undoubtedly affect its ability to meet the buyer's needs.

Cass. com. 13 March 2012, LawLex201200000977JBJ.

Cass. 3e civ, 30 June 1992, LawLex200500006100JBJ; Cass. 3e civ, 20 March 1996, LawLex202300007969JBJ, holding that it is the seller's responsibility to inform the buyer, regardless of the intended use of the property, of the legal situation of the property sold with regard to the exercise of hunting rights.

CA Versailles 14 November 2019, LawLex201900001408JBJ.

Cass. 3e civ, 1 July 1998, LawLex202100006428JBJ.

CA Douai, 13 December 2004, LawLex200800001512JBJ, ruling that the professional vendor must inform the buyer of any restrictions on the use of the goods sold, when there is no contractual document limiting their use.

Cass. civ. 1re, 23 April 1985, LawLex200500005936JBJ.

Business Contracts

163. Obligation to provide information

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

163. Obligation to provide information

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise