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

In order to give consumers minimal and harmonized protection within the Union, Directive No 1999/44 of 25 May 1999 introduced, in addition to the legal guarantee of conformity, what French law calls the commercial guarantee or warranty. Directive No 2019/771 gives a broader interpretation to the concept of commercial guarantee and now covers advertising available at the time of, or before the conc …

Commercial guarantee of conformity

New Article L. 224-25-27 of the Consumer Code, resulting from Ordinance No 2021-1247 of 29 September 2021, provides that the obligations of the professional mentioned in Articles L. 217-21 to L. 217-23 relating to commercial guarantees in relation to sales are also applicable to commercial warranties subscribed to on the occasion of the provision of digital content or a digital service.

In order to give consumers minimal and harmonized protection within the Union, Directive No 1999/44 of 25 May 1999 introduced, in addition to the legal guarantee of conformity, what French law calls the commercial guarantee or warranty. Directive No 2019/771 gives a broader interpretation to the concept of commercial guarantee and now covers advertising available at the time of, or before the conclusion of the contract . This notion refers to offers of contractual guarantees made by the professional seller in addition to statutory consumer protection and by which it undertakes to reimburse the price paid, to replace or repair the good which does not correspond to the conditions laid down in the guarantee declaration or in the related advertising .

Former Article L. 217-15, paragraph 1 defined the commercial guarantee as “any contractual undertaking by a professional vis-à-vis the consumer for reimbursement of the purchase price, the replacement or the repair of the good, in addition to its legal obligations to guarantee the conformity of the good”. New Article L. 217-21, as amended by Ordinance No. 2021-1247, essentially repeats this definition and adds to it. The professional referred to in this definition may thus be “the seller or the producer, including through the intermediary of any other person acting in their name or on their behalf in relation to the consumer”. Furthermore, the commercial guarantee is not only intended to provide a refund of the purchase price, replacement or repair of the goods, but also “any other service related to the goods, or any requirement not related to conformity and set out in the commercial guarantee, in addition to the seller's legal obligations to ensure the conformity of the goods”.

Like Directive No 2019/771, any commercial guarantee is binding on the guarantor in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in the guarantee, or the terms and conditions set out in the announcement of the guarantee prior to the conclusion of the contract, if the latter are more favorable, unless the guarantor demonstrates that the announcement was corrected prior to the conclusion of the contract.

 Article 17 of Directive No 2019/771: “1. Any commercial guarantee shall be binding on the guarantor under the conditions laid down in the commercial guarantee statement and associated advertising available at the time, or before the conclusion, of the contract. Under the conditions laid down in this Article and without prejudice to any other applicable provisions of Union or national law, where a producer offers to the consumer a commercial guarantee of durability for certain goods for a certain period of time, the producer shall be liable directly to the consumer, during the entire period of the commercial guarantee of durability for repair or replacement of the goods in accordance with Article 14. The producer may offer to the consumer more favourable conditions in the commercial guarantee of durability statement. If the conditions laid out in the commercial guarantee statement are less advantageous to the consumer than those laid down in the associated advertising, the commercial guarantee shall be binding under the conditions laid down in the advertising relating to the commercial guarantee, unless, before the conclusion of the contract, the associated advertising was corrected in the same way or in a comparable way to that in which it was made. [...]”

 Article 1(2)(e), Directive No 1999/44. Articles L. 217-15 et seq. of the Consumer Code. (former Articles L. 211-15 et seq.)

French Consumer Law

533. Commercial guarantee of conformity(1)

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

Sous parties

Les notions juridiques connexes

533. Commercial guarantee of conformity.css-17rnqzd{cursor:pointer;margin-left:4px;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}(1).css-1exptwg{z-index:1500;color:#FFFFFF;font-family:IBM Plex Sans,sans-serif,Playfair Display,serif;font-size:16px;line-height:body1.lineHeight;}

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

Sous parties

Les notions juridiques connexes

533. Commercial guarantee of conformity(1)

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