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 Law of 3 January 2008 gave the DGCCRF the power to settle for infringements of current Articles L. 121-2 to L. 121-5 of the Consumer Code. The procedure is currently governed by Articles L. 523-1 to L. 523-4 (former Article L. 141-2) and R. 523-1 to R. 523-4 (former Article R. 141-3) of the Consumer Code. A settlement may be proposed to the offender as long as public action has not been set in …

Settlement

The Law of 3 January 2008 gave the DGCCRF the power to settle for infringements of current Articles L. 121-2 to L. 121-5 of the Consumer Code. The procedure is currently governed by Articles L. 523-1 to L. 523-4 (former Article L. 141-2) and R. 523-1 to R. 523-4 (former Article R. 141-3) of the Consumer Code. A settlement may be proposed to the offender as long as public action has not been set in motion. The Hamon Law of 17 March 2014 reinforced the rights of defense by requiring the Administration to attach a copy of the report of the finding of the infringement to the proposal addressed to the infringer. The latter then has one month, starting from the notification, to reply. In the event of acceptance, the infringer must return a signed copy of the proposal to the administrative authority.

In its memo on unfair commercial practices , the Administration states that it has dropped the minimum amount requirement imposed on the offender, noting that misleading commercial marketing practices can effectively “vary widely in their scope and severity, making the setting of a threshold irrelevant”. The amount of the settlement is therefore assessed according to the context of the infringement   and the criminal policy of the public prosecutors' offices in that regard. An agreement will therefore need to be found as a matter of priority with the public prosecutor(s).  Nevertheless, the DGCCRF recommends that the use of settlements should only be used for cases of limited scope, without a national dimension and without declared victims who could join proceedings as civil parties. Conversely, it recommends that criminal proceedings should always be preferred for important cases, particularly those that cause a serious disturbance to the public order, those that have caused harm to one or more consumers, or those for which public knowledge of the case appears necessary.

however In the meantime the DGCCRF does seem to have deviated from this approach as in June 2019 it announced that it had negotiated a large settlement (fine of EUR 10 million) with an insurer for misleading commercial practices, together with an obligation to compensate consumers who had made a claim in connection with the procedure in question.

Note de service 2009-07 of 29 January 2009.

For example, depending on the local or wider impact of the practice, the size of the business or the extent of the harm.

French Consumer Law

203. Settlement

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Les notions juridiques connexes

203. Settlement

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Les notions juridiques connexes

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise