Business Contracts

Prior to Law No 2015-177 of 16 February 2015, Article 1644 of the Civil Code required the assessment of the portion of the price to be returned by the seller to be arbitrated by experts . Neither the buyer  nor the courts  could themselves determine the amount to be recovered. Noting that the court's obligation to appoint experts to estimate the amount to be returned needlessly increased the cost  …

Amount of reduction

Prior to Law No 2015-177 of 16 February 2015, Article 1644 of the Civil Code required the assessment of the portion of the price to be returned by the seller to be arbitrated by experts . Neither the buyer  nor the courts  could themselves determine the amount to be recovered. Noting that the court's obligation to appoint experts to estimate the amount to be returned needlessly increased the cost and duration of proceedings, the Court of Cassation recommended, in its 2013 report, that this obligation be abolished. Adopted in the wake of this, the Law of 16 February 2015 now allows the court to determine the amount of the reduction or to refer, if it considers it necessary, to an expert appraisal.

In practice, the amount of the price reduction must be proportional to the reduction in the value of the thing  and correspond to the difference between the price paid by the buyer at the time of sale and the price he would have paid had he known of the defects . The party exercising the action for reduction of the price can therefore only be reimbursed for that part of the price which exceeds what he would have paid had he been fully aware of the extent of the defect, when he has already obtained a reduction in the sale price due to the existence of a risk . In practice, this amounts to the cost of repairs required to make the good fit for use . It may not, however, correspond to the cost of completely restoring the vehicle, when only a minor defect has been identified .

In certain cases, experts may have estimated the cost of repairs to be higher than the price at which the vehicle was sold, so the Court of Cassation has capped the amount of the reduction at a level that is always lower than the price paid . In addition, the buyer is entitled to a reduction in the sale price, even if that price, on the day the contract was concluded, was significantly lower than the value of the vehicle as estimated by the expert. The fact that the buyer, at the time of the sale, may have been able to obtain a considerable bargain is irrelevant, since at that time he was unaware of the existence of the defect and had to incur costs to remedy the defects .

Cass. com. 19 October 1999, LawLex200500003964JBJ: holding that the court does not  not fail to do justice by delegating to an expert the task of estimating the amount of the reduction in the sale price.

Cass. 1re civ, 3 May 2006, LawLex200600001982JBJ. See already CA Versailles, 13 January 2000, LawLex200500005068JBJ.

Cass. 1ère civ, 4 June 2014, LawLex201400002108JBJ; Cass. 3e civ, 3 December 2013, LawLex201400000355JBJ; 4 April 2013, LawLex201400000363JBJ; 7 October 2014, LawLex201600000240JBJ; 27 April 2017, LawLex201700001353JBJ. See also Cass. 3e civ, 10 November 1999, LawLex200400003431JBJ, holding that the court could not substitute its assessment for that of the appointed expert as to the amount of the price reduction in the context of an action for reduction of the price; 26 June 2002, LawLex200400003625JBJ.

CA Nîmes, 11 September 2012, LawLex201300000215JBJ.

CA Rouen, 17 October 2012, LawLex201300000218JBJ.

Cass. 3e civ, 18 October 2018, LawLex201800001598JBJ.

CA Rouen, 4 January 2006, LawLex200700000542JBJ; Cass. 3e civ., 14 September 2017, LawLex201700001518JBJ; CA Bourges, 19 April 2018, LawLex201800000615JBJ.

CA Colmar, 15 February 1991, LawLex201200000802JBJ.

Cass. 3e civ, 19 April 2000, LawLex200500004317JBJ: the purchaser who brings an action for reduction of the price can only claim a reduction corresponding to a sum lower than the sale price, even if the cost of the work to restore the property is higher, if he retains the property sold; CA Douai, 31 January 2011, LawLex201200001683JBJ; CA Rennes, 22 November 2019, LawLex201900001443JBJ.

Cass. 3e civ, 1 February 2006, LawLex200700000653JBJ.

Business Contracts

215. Amount of reduction

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise

Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

215. Amount of reduction

Demandez un accès gratuit au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise

Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise