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

According to the specialist literature, the aim of consumer law is primarily the protection of consumers. It is therefore diametrically opposed to that of the Civil Code  which operates under the premise that the parties are equal, and aims to restore balance within legal relationships i.e. between traders and consumers, which are “naturally” unbalanced. 
This is not our point of view. Consumer la …

Consumption function

According to the specialist literature, the aim of consumer law is primarily the protection of consumers. It is therefore diametrically opposed to that of the Civil Code  which operates under the premise that the parties are equal, and aims to restore balance within legal relationships i.e. between traders and consumers, which are “naturally” unbalanced. 

This is not our point of view. Consumer law implements what economists descibe as the “consumption function”, i.e. the final stage, after production and distribution, of the economic process that puts products and services on the market.

The protection of consumers is now only one particular aspect of a law of which the essential function is something else, even if the development of modern advertising and marketing methods, economic inequality between contracting parties and the increasing complexity of goods and services justify affording a special protection to consumers.

This protective aspect explains the general characteristics of consumer law, which comes under the category of public policy regulation  and not only protects consumers but associates them with its development. It is a law which remedies rather than annuls contracts - it being generally in the interest of the consumer to pursue them - and aims to prevent rather than repress, as illustrated by the striking out of unfair terms; it promotes class actions because where there are many litigants in a case, the economic interest for the consumer is limited if claims are not grouped. Obviously, the need for consumer protection only becomes evident when the consumer acquires a product or service or after its acquisition, but this factor does not call into question the essential function of consumer law which consists, in the same way as competition and distribution law and  complementary to them, in ensuring the proper functioning of the market as a whole.

The prevalence of the objective of protection of the market over consumer protection is particularly apparent in EU law, which prohibits any measure having equivalent effect to a quantitative restriction, even where justified under the consumer laws of a Member State, which would form an obstacle to the building of the internal market. Only “overriding requirements” based on the protection of consumers can legitimately justify a restriction of the free movement of goods. More generally, the European directives which concern consumer law, initially minimum harmonization directives which meant that the Member States could maintain their more protective national provisions, are today generally of maximum harmonization: the unification of the rules, which is necessary for a genuine internal market, now clearly prevails over the protection of the consumer.

Our outlook explains both the positioning of this book within our works on economic law (after Competition Law and Distribution Law and before European Business Law) and the way it has developed; after looking at the process of placing a product or service on the market, we will then address advertising and sales promotions (Title I), sales (Title II) and after-sales (Title III).

At least in its traditional conception prior the reform of the law of contracts by Ordinance No 2016-131 of 10 February 2016 on the reform of the law of contracts.

Public policy for protection (ordre public de protection), as usually understood, justifies the court intepreting a contract in the consumer's favor (Art. L. 211-1 Cons. C) and "may" raise of its own motion all the provisions of the Consumer Code  (Art. R 632-1 Cons. C)

French Consumer Law

1. Consumption function

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Les notions juridiques connexes

1. Consumption function

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Les notions juridiques connexes

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