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

The Code of Criminal Procedure limits, in principle, the civil action to the compensation of the harm resulting from a criminal offense. However, Article 5-1 provides for the possibility of obtaining interim relief from the civil court. The Consumer Code gives associations the same options: they can file a civil action to obtain redress for the injury to the collective interest of consumers, but a …

Compensation for injury or injunctions to cease of unlawful activities 

The Code of Criminal Procedure limits, in principle, the civil action to the compensation of the harm resulting from a criminal offense. However, Article 5-1 provides for the possibility of obtaining interim relief from the civil court. The Consumer Code gives associations the same options: they can file a civil action to obtain redress for the injury to the collective interest of consumers, but also “ask the civil court ruling on the civil action, or the criminal court ruling on the civil action, to order the defendant or the accused, where necessary subject to penalties, to take any measure necessary for the cessation of the illegal activities”.

The object of the action available under Article L. 621-1 (former Article L. 421-1) of the Consumer Code is to compensate for harm caused, directly or indirectly, to the collective interest of consumers. The collective interest of consumers is not the sum of individual interests, or the general interest represented by the public authorities . It is also distinct from injury suffered personally by the victims of the offense . An association was able to obtain compensation for the injury to the collective interest of consumers when the advertisement at issue only related to a real estate property because it was misleading to all potential buyers . To demonstrate injury to the collective interest of consumers, the association does not have to establish that its activity has been affected by the offense committed by the trader . 

Going beyond the harm to the collective interest of consumers, which is the only harm stipulated, can the associative loss - constituted by the costs incurred by the association in the context of its activities of investigation and prevention of offenses and the protection of victims - be compensated?

The first civil chamber of the Court of Cassation seemed to consider it possible in a case where the trial courts were censured for not having responded to pleadings to that effect . The criminal chamber subsequently considered, reading in conjunction Article 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and former Article L. 421-1 of the Consumer Code, that “properly declared associations having as their express statutory object the defense of the interests of consumers may exercise the rights granted to civil claimants in criminal proceedings only in relation to events giving rise to direct or indirect harm to the collective interest of consumers, unless they are able to justify having themselves suffered harm directly caused by the offense” . Thus, compensation for the harm suffered by an association for the defense of consumers bringing a civil action in their collective interest does not include its operating costs, which are usually covered by the fees paid by its members . 

The collective harm is assessed taking account of the nature of the offense, the clear harm caused to consumers , the importance of the trader and the specific action taken by the association in relation to price . In an older case, the criminal chamber held that the compensation for the harm to the collective interest of consumers resulting from infringements of pharmaceutical legislation could be evaluated with reference to the list of articles that the pharmacist having committed the offense had unlawfully offered for sale .

2) Injunction to cease unlawful activities  

Article L. 621-2 (formerly L. 421-2) of the Consumer Code provides that associations may ask the court to order, if appropriate subject to penalties, any measure for the cessation of the illegal activities or to remove from the contract or type of contract offered to consumers an unlawful term. Prior to the institution of such actions by Law 88-14 of 5 January 1988, the Court of Cassation had already held that the right for authorized associations to bring a civil action for compensation for harm caused by a violation of the criminal law necessarily required them to be able to apply for interim measures for the cessation of the manifestly unlawful disturbance ("trouble manifestement illicite") resulting from it . By virtue of Article L. 621-2, the court hearing an action for injunction may thus order measures to ensure the respect of promises made in a misleading advertisement relating to the unlimited nature of an internet subscription  or direct a trader to print on the packaging of its products a warning regarding potential inability of the product to function with certain devices . 

Like the action for injunction referred to in Articles L. 621-7 and L. 621-8 (formerly L. 421-6), the action available under  Article L. 621-2 was until recently purely preventive: it was declared inadmissible when advertisement criticized were no longer being broadcast at the date the proceedings were instituted . The Hamon law  and then the Macron law  have changed that situation. In the interests of clarity, the Recodification Ordinance of 14 March 2016 goes further and reformulates the text to specify that the associations will be able to ask the court “to order the defendant or the accused, if appropriate subject to penalties, any measure for the cessation of the illegal activities or to remove an unlawful term from the contract or standard agreement offered to consumers or from any contract in the course of performance”. They may also ask the court to declare terms to be void ab initio (deemed “unwritten") in all identical contracts "in the course of their performance” concluded by the defendant or the accused with consumers and to order that party to inform, at its own expense, the consumers concerned by all appropriate means.

Finally, Articles L. 621-3 and L. 621-4 (former Article L. 421-3) of the Consumer Code allow the criminal court to adjourn sentencing after having found a trader guilty, requiring him, under penalty where appropriate, to comply within a specific time-limit fixed, with requirements determined by that court and which have as their object the cessation of unlawful activity   or to remove the unlawful term from the contract or standard agreement offered to consumers.

CA Angers, 17 October 2008, LawLex201400000271JBJ.

Cass. crim., 20 May 1985, LawLex200400001317JBJ.

Cass. 1re civ., 1st December 1987, LawLex200400001323JBJ.

Cass. 1re civ., 9 March 2004, LawLex200400000603JBJ, upholding CA Versailles, 14 March 2001, LawLex200300004368JBJ.

TGI Nanterre, 24 June 2003, LawLex200300002399JBJ.

TGI Paris, 3 July 2012, LawLex201200001216JBJ.

Law No 2014-344 of 17 March 2014, Article 81, OJ of 18 March 2014, 5400.

Law No 2015-990 of 6 August 2015 for growth, activity and equality of economic opportunities, OJ of 7 August 2015, 13537, Article 40.

Cass. crim., 13 November 2002, LawLex200300000990JBJ.

Cass. crim., 9 September 2014, LawLex201500001008JBJ.

Cass. 1re civ., 2 December 2003, LawLex200300004601JBJ.

Cass. crim., 3 May 2006, LawLex200600001392JBJ.

CA Paris, 9 March 1995, LawLex200600001812JBJ.

CA Paris, 11 March 2016, LawLex201600000659JBJ.

CA Colmar, 26 September 1991, LawLex200300001614JBJ.

Cass. crim., 25 February 1986, LawLex200400001321JBJ.

French Consumer Law

26. Compensation for injury or injunctions to cease of unlawful activities

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26. Compensation for injury or injunctions to cease of unlawful activities

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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