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

Ordinance No 2021-1734 of December 22, 2021, which transposes the Omnibus Directive on the better application and modernization of EU consumer protection rules, was issued on the basis of Article 2 of Law No 2020-1508 of 3 December 2020 laying down various provisions for adapting to European Union law on economic and financial matters, known as the “DDADUE” law, aims in particular to combat price  …

Article L. 112-1-1 Consumer Code

Ordinance No 2021-1734 of December 22, 2021, which transposes the Omnibus Directive on the better application and modernization of EU consumer protection rules, was issued on the basis of Article 2 of Law No 2020-1508 of 3 December 2020 laying down various provisions for adapting to European Union law on economic and financial matters, known as the “DDADUE” law, aims in particular to combat price reduction announcements based on inflated reference prices which affect the consumer's ability to be fully informed about the reality of the promotional offer.

New Article L. 112-1-1 of the Consumer Code , adopted by the ordinance, requires advertisers to indicate the previous price charged by the professional seller before the reduction is applied. This reference price must correspond to the lowest price charged to all consumers during a thirty-day period preceding the sale period.

First, in the case of successive announcements during a given period, the reference price is the same as that indicated before the first price reduction announcement.

Second, those provisions do not apply to price reduction announcements for products that are likely to deteriorate or expire quickly. Nor do they apply to price comparisons between professionals.

The new French regime for price reduction announcements, which came into force on 28 May 2022, marks an evolution in favor of consumer rights. While the return of the obligation to display a reference price was unavoidable, the single criterion of the previous price over a period of 30 days, which is more restrictive than the provisions of the Decree of 31 December 2008, severely limits the freedom of choice of businesses.

Failure to comply with Article L. 112-1-1 constitutes a misleading commercial practice pursuant to Article L. 121-2 of the Consumer Code, and is punishable by a sentence of two years' imprisonment and a fine of EUR 300,000 for a natural person and EUR 1,500,000 for a legal person pursuant to Article L. 132-2 of the same code. The fine may be increased in proportion to the advantage gained from the offense to 10% of the average annual turnover, calculated on the last three annual turnovers known at the time of the facts, or to 50% of the expenses incurred in implementing the advertising or practice constituting the offense.

French Consumer Law

343. Article L. 112-1-1 Consumer Code

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

Les notions juridiques connexes

343. Article L. 112-1-1 Consumer Code

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

Les notions juridiques connexes

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