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 the 2015 order, The regulation on price reduction announcements applied only to advertisements containing cost-related aspects, i.e. announcements expressed either in absolute value (i.e. in Euros) , or as a percentage . Thus, advertising containing cost-related aspects included the labeling and marking of products on the places of sale which only indicate the reference price , or the messag …

Scope of application

Under the 2015 order, The regulation on price reduction announcements applied only to advertisements containing cost-related aspects, i.e. announcements expressed either in absolute value (i.e. in Euros) , or as a percentage . Thus, advertising containing cost-related aspects included the labeling and marking of products on the places of sale which only indicate the reference price , or the message announcing a reduction in VAT from 18.6 to 5.5% . However, ads containing no cost-related aspects, described as “literary” (littéraire), whose sole purpose is to publicize the practice of low prices of a store or retail website. An operator can therefore disseminate announcements such as “knock-out prices”, “sensational prices”, “X cracks down on prices”, “reduction on a given product”, “sale”, “exceptional offer”, or “special discount” were not considered as price reduction announcements without falling under the provisions of the order . However, such advertisements remain subject to Articles L. 121-2 et seq. (former Articles L. 121-1 et seq.) of the Consumer Code .

The provisions of the Order of 31 December 2008 did not apply to advertisements by which the advertiser compared not its current prices with those previously charged, but its prices and those of its competitors . These advertisements fall under Articles L. 122-1 et seq. (former Articles L. 121-8 et seq.) of the Consumer Code . 

Introductory price announcements are not subject to the provisions of the order, since they consist, for the advertiser, in comparing its current prices with those which it intends to apply at a later date. Sales of used goods, which have not been covered by any of the successive orders, have been exempted from the regulatory requirements by case law . The Administration also considered that advertisements such as “thirteen to the dozen”, “+% free” or “of which x% free”, were not covered by the order as, in these cases, the reduction results from the increase in the quantity of products contained in the usual unit of sale . The same applies to sales of products in separate batches, in-store audio ads announcing price reductions of very short duration ("flash" sales) or advertisements granting price advantages that can be used subsequently for the purchase of other goods .

The courts have always limited the application of the previous orders to the benefits offered to all customers, even when they did not specify it. The same should apply for the Order of 11 March 2015. The regulations also do not apply to offers reserved for certain categories of customers, such as holders of large family cards , cooperatives , members of works councils  or holders of charge cards . The same solution applies when the benefit of the reduction is subject to a condition that only some customers can meet, such as the recovery of an old appliance , or the purchase of a minimum amount of goods. In the last case, however, it must not be set at such a low level that the offer actually benefits all customers . Similarly, an advertiser cannot rely on the exception relating to the limited number of beneficiaries of the offer when it is established that the reduction benefits more than 75% of its customer base . In all cases, in cases where the order was not applicable, the courts did not hesitate to sanction fictitious reduction offers on the basis of Article L. 121-2 of the Commercial Code . The repeal of the 2015 order and the regime instituted by new section L. 112-1-1 should simplify matters in the future.

 Order of 11 March 2015, Article 2: obligation to specify the reduced price announced and the reference price.

 Art. 3: “when the price reduction announcement is of a uniform rate […]”.

 On this issue, see also the aforementioned notice 10-03 of the ECCP.

 See, however, CA Angers, 29 April 1997, LawLex200300002235JBJ, rejecting the exception in the presence of a widely disseminated and non-nominative family card.

 CA Paris, 12 December 1990, LawLex200300003927JBJ.

 See, however, CA Paris, 8 March 2000, LawLex200300004592JBJ, considering that an advertiser could not claim that its discount offer was limited to holders of a works council card, and thus escape the application of the order, when over 80% of its customers had received discounts.

 CA Paris, 30 April 1998, LawLex200300002432JBJ.

 Cass. crim., 11 April 1983, LawLex200300003691JBJ.

 CA Paris, 21 March 1995, LawLex200300003908JBJ and LawLex200300004239JBJ, upheld by Cass. crim., 24 April 1997, LawLex200300003715JBJ and LawLex200300003716JBJ.

 TGI Paris, 22 March 2001, LawLex200300002457JBJ.

 Cass. crim., 9 January 1999, LawLex200300003238JBJ, upholding CA Paris, 30 April 1998, LawLex200300002432JBJ, which declares a discount offer reserved for holders of a charge card misleading, as the public prices are artificially inflated. 

 CA Paris, 18 May 1995, LawLex200300003669JBJ.

 CA Rouen, 26 March 1997, LawLex200300003911JBJ, upholding T. pol. Rouen  7 November 1996, LawLex200300003910JBJ.

 See Circular of 7 July 2009 concerning the conditions of application of the Order of 31 December 2008 and Notice 10-03 of the Trade Practices Commission (CEPC) of 27 January 2010.

According to the Court of Cassation, although the promotional message which merely indicates that the advertiser charges the lowest prices without specifying the prices charged previously by it or by competitors, or the period of comparison, escapes the provisions of the Order, it falls within the scope of Article L. 121-2 (former Article 121-1) of the Consumer Code if it is misleading, see Cass. com., 4 June 2002, LawLex200300001200JBJ, overturning CA Orléans, 27 April 2000, LawLex200300001202JBJ.

  See TGI Strasbourg, 8 January 2008 (2 Orders), LawLex200800000222JBJ and LawLex200800000223JBJ.

 Cass. crim., 10 May 1989, LawLex200300003697JBJ, admitting the possibility, for second-hand vehicles, to avoid the criteria laid down in Article 2 of the Order of 1977 and to refer to the Argus rating to determine the reference price.

French Consumer Law

346. Scope of application

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

346. Scope of application

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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