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

Under Article 8 of Directive No 2005/29, a commercial practice is regarded as aggressive if it significantly impairs or is likely to significantly impair the average consumer's freedom of choice or conduct with regard to the product and thereby causes him or is likely to cause him to take a transactional decision that he would not have taken otherwise, by harassment, coercion, including the use of …

Aggressive commercial practices

Under Article 8 of Directive No 2005/29, a commercial practice is regarded as aggressive if it significantly impairs or is likely to significantly impair the average consumer's freedom of choice or conduct with regard to the product and thereby causes him or is likely to cause him to take a transactional decision that he would not have taken otherwise, by harassment, coercion, including the use of physical force, or undue influence. In most cases, such practices are implemented through door-to-door sales or other sales outside commercial establishments.

Article 9 determines the factors to be taken into account in assessing the existence of an aggressive commercial practice:

- the time and place where the practice is implemented, its nature and its persistence;

- the exploitation by the trader of any specific misfortune or circumstance of such gravity as to impair the consumer's judgment, of which the trader is aware, to influence the consumer's decision with regard to the product;

- any significant or disproportionate non-contractual barriers imposed by the trader when the consumer wishes to assert his contractual rights, including the right to terminate the contract or change the product or supplier;

- any threat to take any action that cannot legally be taken.

- the exploitation by the trader of any specific misfortune or circumstance of such gravity as to impair the consumer's judgment, of which the trader is aware, to influence the consumer's decision with regard to the product ;

As in the case of misleading commercial practices, Annex 1 of the directive lists the aggressive commercial practices considered in all circumstances to be unfair. Included in that list, at point 29, is “inertia selling” i.e. the unsollicited sale of a product or service such as, according to the Court, where a telecommunications operator sells SIM cards on which specific services such as internet browsing services and voicemail services had been pre-loaded and pre-activated, without first sufficiently informing the consumer of the content or the cost of those services . On the other hand, the commercial practice of simultaneously making the consumer an offer of a personal loan and an offer of an insurance product not related to the loan does not constitute an aggressive commercial practice in all circumstances within the meaning of Directive No 2005/29 .

CJEU Case C-853/19 Sting Reality, Order of 2 July 2020, not available in English: where a contract has been concluded by an elderly person suffering from a serious disability and having a limited  income which does not enable that person to repay the debts that he or she has accumulated, the fact that the contract had the effect of enabling a national consumer protection provision to be circumvented is evidence that the trader intended to knowingly take advantage of the particular gravity of the situation of that person constitutes evidence that the trader intended to exploit the seriousness of the situation of that person, which is characteristic of an aggressive commercial practice.

Joined Cases C-54/17 and C-55/17 Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercaton Judgment of 13 September 2018, LawLex201800001288JBJ.

Case C-646/22 Compass Banca SpA, Judgment of 14 November 2024, LawLex202400008877JBJ.

French Consumer Law

118. Aggressive commercial practices

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

118. Aggressive commercial practices

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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