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 Consumer Code, goes somewhat further in its terminology than EU law, which refers only to unfair commercial practices, and classifies as prohibited commercial practices, including unfair commercial practices constituting misleading or aggressive commercial practices, but also the practices listed in Articles L. 121-8 et seq. such as, in particular, abuse of weakness, sales with bonuses, tied sales or forced sales - as opposed to commercial practices that are encouraged  or regulated. The Consumer Code contains specific provisions to punish the commission of misleading or aggressive commercial practices or the offenses mentioned above. In addition, from 28 May 2022, new Article L. 132-1 A, created by Ordinance No 2021-1734 as a result of the transposition of the Omnibus Directive, provides for a civil fine in the event of a large-scale infringement, including on a Union-wide scale, applicable to unfair commercial practices other than misleading or aggressive commercial practices .

Article L. 121-1 provides that “unfair commercial practices are prohibited”, and then defines the concept of an unfair commercial practices as a practice which is contrary to the requirements of professional diligence and which materially distorts or is likely to materially distort the economic behavior of the consumer.

A commercial practice can be defined as “any act, omission, course of conduct or representation, commercial communication including advertising and marketing, by a trader, directly connected with the promotion, sale or supply of a product to consumers” (Art. 2(d)), Directive No 2005/29). The scope of application is broad and goes beyond the contractual relationship between a seller or supplier and a consumer.

Since the adoption of Law No 2020-105 of 10 February 2020 on the fight against waste and the circular economy (OJ of 11 February 2020), the Consumer Code now devotes a chapter to  commercial  practices that are encouraged, which for the time being currently only has one section dedicated to the sale of products without packaging. New article L. 120-1 defines the bulk sales as "the sale to the consumer of products presented without packaging, in the quantity selected by the consumer, in redeployable or reusable containers". The sale of products without packaging is therefore to be adopted  for any everyday consumer product, including in the context of distance selling, apart form exceptions which are duly justified by public health considerations and fixed by decree. New Article L. 120-2 provides that in retail stores, reusable containers can be supplied by the retailer or brought in by the consumer, and that a display in the store must inform consumer of the rules for cleaning and the suitability of reusable containers, the consumer then being responsible for the hygiene and suitability of the container and the merchant able to refuse service if the proposed container is clearly dirty or unsuitable.

Consumer Code, Art. L. 132-1 A: "Without prejudice to the award of damages, a civil fine may be imposed, following a request for mutual assistance under Article L. 511-10 relating to a large-scale or EU-wide infringement, pursuant to Article 21 of Regulation (EU) No 2017/2394 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2017 on cooperation between national authorities responsible for ensuring the enforcement of consumer protection laws, against a professional who persistently uses a commercial practice that is recognized as unfair, within the meaning of Article L. 121-1, other than one of those specified in the fourth paragraph of this article, by a court decision that has become final with respect to him or her. A civil fine may also be imposed, under the same conditions, on a professional who has recourse, on a continuous basis, to a commercial practice recognized as unfair, within the meaning of article L. 121-1, other than one of those listed in the fourth paragraph of this article, by a decision of the Council of State or an opinion issued pursuant to Article L. 113-1 of the Code of Administrative Justice, or a decision of the Court of Cassation or an opinion issued pursuant to Article L. 441-1 of the Code of Judicial Organization. The administrative authority in charge of competition and consumer affairs, acting on the basis of Article L. 524-2 or intervening in the proceedings, consumer protection associations, acting on the basis of Articles L. 621-7, L. 621-9, L. 622-1 and L. 623-1, the public prosecutor or the consumer may ask the court seized of the matter to impose a civil fine, not exceeding EUR 300,000. This fine may be increased, in proportion to the benefits derived from the practices in question, to 4% of average annual sales, calculated on the basis of the last three known annual sales on the date of the decision. If no information is available to calculate the fine on the basis of turnover, the amount may be increased to EUR 2 million.The court may order the publication, diffusion or posting of its decision or of an excerpt from it, according to the terms it specifies. It may order the insertion of the decision or an excerpt therefrom in the report on the operations of the financial year drawn up by the managers, the board of directors or the management board of the company. The costs shall be borne by the convicted person".

109. Prohibited commercial practices