French Competition Law provides a comprehensive review of the French rules relating to competition: restrictive agreements, commercial negotiation, abuses of a dominant position, procedure and merger control.

French Competition Law

The risk of confusion is ruled out when similar products are intended for the well-informed hobbyists. In effect,  consumers in such cases constitute a very limited number of ultra-specialized persons. Thus, there can be no confusion between the names of stores located hundreds of kilometers apart and specifically targeting triathletes . Likewise, an advertisement introducing a repairer as a brand …

Informed amateurs

Where the product is intended for other traders, the risk of confusion is reduced or even inexistant. In effect, traders' choices  are based more on the features than the appearance of a product  and they will generally carefully examine products before purchasing them . Therefore, a general resemblance cannot create confusion in the minds of discerning customers between competing products on which the names of the manufacturer or distributor are indicated . Being a trader does not however exclude the possibility of unfair confusion. This is the case for example for the sale of seedlings at a price which is much lower than that charged by the owner of the variety, without giving the full varietal name . Similarly, a slavish copying of the competitor's product which is not justified by technical requirements is a source of confusion, even with regard to business clients .

CA Versailles, 29 March 2001, LawLex200200000654JBJ, pharmaceutical products; Cass. com., 8 October 2002, LawLex200200006031JBJ, containers intend for local authorities; CA Paris, 7 February 2002, LawLex200200000506JBJ, washing and sterilizing equipment for medical use; CA Colmar, 28 February 2024, LawLex202400002104JBJ: as the reference public is made up of healthcare professionals, mainly pharmacists, private nurses and hospital staff, with a particularly high level of attention, who choose the products distributed by the parties to the dispute on the basis of criteria independent of the packaging, the nature of the public and the way the products are distributed make it impossible for there to be any likelihood of confusion by imitation of the packaging, which, in order to be recognized as established by the interim relief court, would have to be both obvious and beyond serious dispute.

Cass. com., 29 January 2002, LawLex200200000559JBJ; CA Paris, 26 January 2024, LawLex202400000738JBJ, holding that, aside from their technical characteristics, the instrumentation kits in question, which differ in shape and color (with regard to the stem holder, probe and handle), presentation of the surgical technique (instructions) and packaging with those of the plaintiff undertaking, do not present sufficient similarities to create a risk of confusion in the eyes of the specially informed and attentive public constituted by orthopedic surgeons, so that the plaintiff's action must be dismissed.

CA Paris, 15 January 1997, LawLex200200001307JBJ; CA Versailles, 21 October 1999, LawLex200200000446JBJ; CA Montpellier, 15 February 2000, LawLex200200006106JBJ; Cass. com., 8 October 2002, LawLex200200006031JBJ; CA Paris, 8 January 2009, LawLex200900000228JBJ, on the absence of likelihood of confusion for magazines aimed at experienced professionals which differ substantially in terms of content and presentation.

CA Paris, 23 January 2002, LawLex200200000562JBJ; see also Cass. com., 14 December 1999, LawLex200200000867JBJ; CA Lyon, 13 January 2000, LawLex200200000857JBJ.

CA Versailles, 28 November 1996, LawLex200200001313JBJ; CA Paris, 11 March 1998, LawLex200200001160JBJ; CA Paris, 14 April 2002, LawLex200300002980JBJ; see also Cass. com., 14 October 2020,  LawLex202000002677JBJ, considering that the fact of marketing a model of twisted conductive cord mixing a blue cord and a white cord which almost slavishly reproduces that of a competitor, even if there is a difference in shade between the colors and the packaging used, is wrongful, since the products in question which are intended for a common specialist clientele and which are marketed in the same type of network, generate an overall impression which is extremely similar and that neither the blue nor the white color is a customary feature or a convention in the sector concerned.

Business clients

The risk of confusion is ruled out when similar products are intended for the well-informed hobbyists. In effect,  consumers in such cases constitute a very limited number of ultra-specialized persons. Thus, there can be no confusion between the names of stores located hundreds of kilometers apart and specifically targeting triathletes . Likewise, an advertisement introducing a repairer as a brand specialist does not characterize an act of unfair competition in the absence of any possible confusion as to status as a member of the network in the eyes of members of a network of informed amateurs . 

CA Dijon, 28 May 2002, LawLex200200000502JBJ.

Cass. com., 13 January 1998, LawLex200200001194JBJ. Also see CA Paris, 17 January 2017, LawLex201700000128JBJ.

French Competition Law

44. Informed amateurs

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44. Informed amateurs

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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