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

Article L. 441-1 (former Article L. 213-1) of the Consumer Code sanctions “any person, whether or not he is a party to the contract, who has deceived or attempted to deceive the contractor”. As the text covers the attempt to deceive as well as deception, the fact of offering fruit for sale which has undergone unlawful treatments constitutes deception for the products already sold, and attempted de …

Attempt to deceive

Article L. 441-1 (former Article L. 213-1) of the Consumer Code sanctions “any person, whether or not he is a party to the contract, who has deceived or attempted to deceive the contractor”. As the text covers the attempt to deceive as well as deception, the fact of offering fruit for sale which has undergone unlawful treatments constitutes deception for the products already sold, and attempted deception for the others .

Attempted deception implies a setting in motion of the deception and the fact that it is not subsequently pursued through any orders placed is irrelevant, insofar as that circumstance is independent of the intention of the perpetrator . According to the Court of Cassation, there is an attempt to deceive as to the nature, species, origin, substantial qualities, composition or content of necessary ingredients of the good, when a wine-grower applies for approval to the INAO for a falsified wine under a controlled designation of origin, when such an application is a preliminary step to the marketing of the product concerned, constituting a beginning of execution of the attempt . In all cases, the attempt implies that the products have been offered for sale or proposed, in one way or another, to the contractual partner , otherwise the intentional element is lacking and makes any criminal conviction impossible.

For the Court of Cassation, the possession on the professional premises of a wine merchant - whose activity is to buy and sell - of surplus wines appearing in the harvest declarations and accounts under the appellations claimed at the time of the inspection, determines the beginning of a manufacturing and marketing process, presumes their offer for sale and therefore characterizes the intention to sell these wines under misleading appellations, with the result that attempted deception is constituted .

 CA Angers, 5 June 1997, LawLex200400001219JBJ.

 Cass. crim., 3 May 1974, LawLex200500009048JBJ; CA Angers, 9 May 1995, LawLex200400001264JBJ: the findings made by DGCCRF agent, which show that at 10:30 a.m., at which time no customers have yet been served, a restaurant was using oil unfit for consumption, establish an attempt at the offense of deception.

 Cass. crim., 25 June 2003, LawLex200300003024JBJ.

  The presentation for sale of expired photographic film at its ordinary price constitutes an attempt at the offense of deception, see CA Limoges, 6 June 1993, LawLex200400001351JBJ; CA Douai, 5 November 2002, LawLex200400000333JBJ; CA Montpellier, 7 April 2011, LawLex201200001752JBJ, holding that the accused to tried to evade the obligation to slaughter a cow likely to be affected by tuberculosis by representing an animal different from the one that should have been slaughtered, commits attempted deception.

Cass. crim., 4 October 2022, LawLex202300006850JBJ.

French Consumer Law

557. Attempt to deceive

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

Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

557. Attempt to deceive

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

Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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