French Consumer Law is a comprehensive and comparative overview of French and EU law in this field, covering: advertising, unfair commercial practices, conditions for the validity of contracts, unfair terms, product conformity, latent defects, product safety.

French Consumer Law

Consumer protection by the law of the European Union was not provided for by the Treaty of Rome. It took until 1973, when, by decision, the Consumers' Consultative Committee was created, later to become the Consumers' Consultative Council . Various schemes adopted by the Council then laid the groundwork for a consumer protection and information policy. Article 12 TFEU now lays down the principle a …

Europeanization of consumer law

Consumer protection by the law of the European Union was not provided for by the Treaty of Rome. It took until 1973, when, by decision, the Consumers' Consultative Committee was created, later to become the Consumers' Consultative Council . Various schemes adopted by the Council then laid the groundwork for a consumer protection and information policy. Article 12 TFEU now lays down the principle according to which “consumer protection requirements shall be taken into account in defining and implementing other Union policies and activities”. Pursuant to Article 169 TFEU, the Union must, in order to ensure a high level of consumer protection, contribute, inter alia, to protecting the economic interests of consumers and to promoting their right to information; consumers must be ensured genuine choices and be protected against unscrupulous traders, ensuring the openness, fairness and transparency of the internal market. 

Initially, European legislators opted for the minimum harmonization technique for consumer protection, which allowed the laws of the various Member States to be coordinated, while retaining the power to adopt more protective rules if they saw fit . The disadvantage of this however is that national legislation with significant discrepancies coexist, which discourages exports due to the need to adapt the sale of products to the regulatory specificities of each Member State and reduces the confidence of consumers in cross-border transactions . Since 2002, there has been an observable reversal of the trend in favor of a total harmonization of the laws of the Member States in consumer affairs. Several pieces of legislation bear testimony to this, whether specific, such as the directive on consumer protection in cases of distance-selling of financial services  or the directive on credit agreements for consumers , or general, such as the unfair commercial practices directive, No 2005/29 . This evolution was confirmed with Directive No 2011/83 of 25 October 2011  which advocates full harmonization of the rules it regroups: contracts negotiated away from business premises and distance contracts  and with the e-commerce package comprising Directive No 2019/771 of 20 May 2019 on certain aspects concerning contracts for the sale of goods and Directive No 2019-770 of the same date on certain aspects of contracts for the provision of digital content and digital services . Among the important consumer directives, we find directives on liability for defective products , general product safety , unfair terms in contracts  and more recently, the cross-over “Omnibus Directive”  on  the better enforcement and modernization of Union consumer protection rules.

Now, consumer law is very much influenced by EU law which leaves very little space for the initiative of the national legislator in the matter as the directives adopted are predominantly full-harmonization directives. The Court of Justice has repeatedly sanctioned Member States for incorrectly transposing European instruments. Thus, in the area of unfair commercial practices, Directive No 2005/29, of full harmonization, does not allow for any exceptions. The Court of Justice has ruled that national regulations which provide for a prohibition in principle of practices, under which the participation of consumers in a prize competition or lottery is made conditional to the purchase of a certain quantity of goods or services, are in violation of EU law .

See especially Directive No 84/450 of 10 September 1984, repealed and replaced by Directive No 2006/114 of 12 December 2006 on misleading and comparative advertising, OJ L 376 of 27 December 2006, 21; Directive No 93/13 of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts, OJ L 95 of 21 April 1993, 29; Directive No 97/7 of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts, OJ L 144, of 4 June 1997, 19; Directive No 1999/44 of 25 May 1999 on certain aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees, OJ L 171 of 7 July 1999, 12. Directives No 93/13 and No 1999/44 have been amended by Directive No 2011/83 of 25 October 2011, OJ L 304 of 22 November 2011, which also repeals Directives No 85/577 and No 97/7. Directive No 1994-44 was subsequently repealed and replaced by Directive No 2019/771 of 20 May 2019, OJ L 136 of 22 May 2019.

Directive No 2001/95 of 3 December 2001, OJ L 11 of 15 January 2002, 4.

Directive No 93/13 of 5 April 1993, OJEC L 95 of 21 April 1993.

Directive  No 2019/2161 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Directive 93/13/EEC and Directives 98/6/EC, 2005/29/EC and 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards  the better enforcement and modernization of Union consumer protection  rules, OJ L 328 of 18 December 2019.

Case C-304/08 Zentrale zur Bekämpfung unlauteren Wettbewerbs eV [2010] ECR I-217, LawLex201100000479JBJ.

Green Paper on the Review of the Consumer Acquis, 8 February 2007, COM(2006)744 final.

Directive No 2002/65 of 23 September 2002, OJ L 271 of 9 October 2002, 16, recital 13.

Directive No 2008/48 of 23 April 2008, OJ L 133 of 22 May 2008, 66; Art. 22.

Directive No 2005/29 of 11 May 2005, OJ L 149 of 11 June 2005, 22; recital 14.

Directive No 85/577 of 20 December 1985, OJ L 372 of 31 December 1985, repealed and replaced by Directive No 2011/83 of 25 October 2011.

Directive No 85/374 of 25 July 1985, OJ L 210 of 7 August 1985, 29.

French Consumer Law

5. Europeanization of consumer law

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

5. Europeanization of consumer law

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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