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 legal guarantee of conformity applies only to contracts for the sale of tangible personal property (Article L. 217-1, former Article L. 211-1 of the Consumer Code). Property sales and sales of intangible property, such as receivables, licenses, securities or trademarks, are therefore excluded. A wind turbine fixed on a concrete base and installed in the garden of a house, as an immoveable due  …

Subject-matter of the contract

The legal guarantee of conformity applies only to contracts for the sale of tangible personal property (Article L. 217-1, former Article L. 211-1 of the Consumer Code). Property sales and sales of intangible property, such as receivables, licenses, securities or trademarks, are therefore excluded. A wind turbine fixed on a concrete base and installed in the garden of a house, as an immoveable due to its intended purpose, cannot be covered by the legal guarantee of conformity. All tangible property is covered, however, whether new or used , future or existing, durable or consumable. Thus, the following fall within its scope: the sale of a sofa , custom-made shutters , a heating appliance , parquet flooring ,  or a yacht . Until the last amendment to Article L. 217-2 by Ordinance No 2021-1247 of 29 September 2021 , it even covered the sale of  a horse  insofar as the fact that the contract stipulates that the sale is governed only by the provisions of  the Rural and Maritime Fisheries Code unless the parties declared an intention to the contrary, did not preclude the application of the provisions of the Consumer Code relating to the legal guarantee of conformity to which the Rural and Maritime Fisheries Code expressly refers in relation to the sale of animals. However, Article L. 217-29 now expressly excludes the sale of domestic animals, which is now governed solely by the Rural and Maritime Fishing Code. 

Article L. 217-1-1 specifies that water and gas are considered as tangible personal property when they are packaged in a delimited volume or in a determined quantity. As a result of the amendment of that provision by Ordinance No 2021-1247 of 29 September 2021, electricity, previously excluded ,  is now characterized as a tangible movable good.

The legal guarantee of conformity also applies to goods with digital elements when these elements are provided with the goods as part of the sales contract, whether such digital content or services are provided by the seller or a third party. If it is not clear that the provision of digital content or services is the subject of a separate contract, it is presumed to be part of the contract for the sale of the goods. On the other hand, under amended Article L. 217-2, the legal guarantee of conformity is not applicable to digital content and services that are not covered by a contract for the sale of goods containing digital elements, to digital content provided on a physical medium used exclusively for its transport , nor “to the digital content and services listed in II of Article L. 224-25-3 , including when they are integrated or interconnected with a good covered by this chapter”. Article L. 217-1, II, nevertheless provides for the possibility of applying the legal guarantee of conformity on a distributive basis in contracts of sale grouping together those goods covered and those not covered by the legal guarantee of conformity, it being specified that the conditions for rescinding such contracts are then governed by Article L. 217-16.

  For a used vehicle, CA Nancy, 7 June 2012, LawLex201300000571JBJ; CA Montpellier, 8 October 2014, LawLex201600000147JBJ.

  CA Metz, 13 January 2011, LawLex201300000544JBJ.

Under Article L. L. 224-25-1, II, of the Consumer Code, the following are thus excluded from the legal guarantee of conformity ( and from the specific provisions applicable to supply agreements relating to digital content and digital services ): 

"1°Digital content made available to the general public other than through the transmission of signals, in the context of performances or events, such as digital cinema screenings ;
2° Digital content provided by public sector bodies, understood as any administrative document within the meaning of Articles L. 300-2 and following of the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration ;
3° Services other than digital services, whether or not the professional uses digital formats or means to create the service product, provide it or transmit it to the consumer;
4° Electronic communications services within the meaning of Article 32(6) of the Post and Electronic Communications Code, other than non-dial-based interpersonal communications services within the meaning of Article 32(6)(c);
5° Health care, understood as health services provided by health professionals to assess, preserve or restore health;
6° Gambling services, understood as any service involving a wager with a pecuniary value, involving where appropriate an element of skill, and provided by electronic means or by any other technology that facilitates communication and at the individual request of the recipient of such service;
7° Financial services, understood as any service relating to banking, credit, insurance, individual retirement, investments and payments, as well as the services on digital assets mentioned in Articles L. 54-10-1 et seq. of the Monetary and Financial Code;
8° Software under a free and open license, when the consumer does not pay a price and the personal data provided by the consumer are exclusively processed by the professional to improve the security, compatibility or interoperability of the specific software".

 CA Aix-en-Provence, 11 March 2009, LawLex201300000542JBJ.

  CA Nancy, 31 May 2010, LawLex201300000634JBJ.

 CA  Paris, 19 May 2011, LawLex201300000549JBJ.

  CA Toulouse, 31 March 2009, LawLex201300000551JBJ.

Relating to the legal guarantee of conformity for goods, digital content and digital services.

 CA Chambéry, 28 August 2012, LawLex201300000770JBJ; CA Bourges, 11 January 2018, LawLex201800000082JBJ, recalling that the provisions governing the legal guarantee of conformity under consumer law are applicable to sales of animals between a professional seller and a purchaser acting as a consumer. 

Previously, electricity was excluded from the scope of application of the legal guarantee of conformity under the terms of the last sentence of Article L. 217-2 (formerly Article L. 211-2).

Which are subject to the provisions of Articles L. 224-25-1 et seq. of the Consumer Code

French Consumer Law

517. Subject-matter of the contract

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Les notions juridiques connexes

517. Subject-matter of the contract

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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