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. 413-1 (former Art. L. 213-3) of the Consumer Code provides an exhaustive list of the products that may be concerned by the offense of falsification. These include foodstuffs for human or animal consumption, beverages  or agricultural or natural products intended for sale. Fresh, fermented or adulterated fruit and vegetables are expressly excluded from the scope of this Article .
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 Food products, beverages, agricultural or natural products intended for sale

Article L. 413-1 (former Art. L. 213-3) of the Consumer Code provides an exhaustive list of the products that may be concerned by the offense of falsification. These include foodstuffs for human or animal consumption, beverages  or agricultural or natural products intended for sale. Fresh, fermented or adulterated fruit and vegetables are expressly excluded from the scope of this Article .

Originally, medicinal substances were also among the products for which falsification was prohibited. The Ordinance of 19 December 2012 on strengthening the security of the supply chain of medicines, supervising medicinal products on the internet and combating the falsification of medicinal products  removed these products from the Consumer Code to include them in the Public Health Code, whose Article L. 5421-13 punishes by five years' imprisonment and a fine of EUR 375,000 the manufacture, brokerage, distribution, advertising, offer for sale, sale, import and export of falsified medicines .

The intended use of a product allows to determine whether a product falls within the scope of Article L. 413-1 (former Article L. 213-3). Animal meal is a “food product” within the meaning of this provision when it is an ingredient composed of a mixture of pork and beef meal intended for animal feed which, moreover, must enter the composition of a final animal feed . This is also the case of seeds intended for feeding animals treated with an insecticide containing a product that it unauthorized and toxic for certain animals  or live animals for slaughter  when prohibited estrogen  or anabolic substances  have been given to them, thus making their meat harmful to human health.

A distinction must be made between products intended for particular foods and everyday consumer products. Article 1 of Decree No 91-827 of 29 August 1991 on foodstuffs intended for a particular food provides that “considered as foodstuffs intended for a particular food are foodstuffs which, due to their particular composition or particular manufacturing process, are clearly distinguished from everyday consumer foodstuffs, meet the nutritional objective indicated and are marketed in such a way as to indicate that they meet this objective”. These include products for infants, young children and people with digestive or metabolic disorders, which are subject to harmonized labeling rules at European level relating to the particular characteristics of the product.

Ruling on the issue of food supplements  belonging to one of these categories of products, the Court of Cassation indicated that a dietary supplement can either be a product intended for a particular diet, if it meets the criteria of Decree  No 91-827 of 29 August 1991, or an everyday food subject to the general texts applying to foodstuffs. Thus, when it is not intended for a particular diet, the food supplement must comply with the texts concerning everyday foods .

  Article L. 413-1 (former Article L. 213-3) of the Consumer Code covers both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages; see for wine, Cass. crim., June 27, 1994, LawLex200600001451JBJ; February 6, 2001, LawLex200600001524JBJ.

  Consumer Code, Article L. 413-1 (former Article L. 213-3).

   Cass. crim., 14 November 2000, LawLex200300003310JBJ: a product marketed as a food supplement, which is neither a medicinal product nor a dietary product subject to the regulation of foods intended for particular nutritional uses, falls under the rules applicable to foodstuffs.

 Article L. 5421-13, paragraph 2, of the Public Health Code provides that the penalties are increased to seven years' imprisonment and a fine of EUR 750,000 when: "1° The falsified medicine is dangerous to human health; 2° The offenses referred to in the first paragraph have been committed by pharmaceutical establishments authorized in accordance with Article L. 5124-3, brokers declared in accordance with Article L. 5124-20, pharmacies holding the license referred to in Article L. 5125-4 and health establishment pharmacies referred to in Article L. 5126-5 of the same code; 3° These same offenses have been committed by an organized gang; 4° The offenses of advertising, offering for sale or selling falsified medicines have been committed on a telecommunication network intended for an undetermined audience."

  CA Amiens, 31 January 2002, LawLex200300004392JBJ.

  CA Rouen, 18 October 1999, LawLex200400000720JBJ.

  For calves, Cass. crim., 22 June 1994, LawLex200600001450JBJ; 22 March 1990, LawLex200600001448JBJ.

  Cass. crim., 6 October 1976, LawLex200600001555JBJ.

  Cass. crim., 21 January 2003, LawLex200600001617JBJ.

  Food supplements were defined by Decree No 96-307 of 10 April 1996, as products intended to be ingested in addition to the usual diet to compensate for the actual or supposed insufficiency of daily intakes; see CA Aix-en-Provence, 15 January 2003, LawLex200300004123JBJ; Cass. crim., 1 April 2003, LawLex200300003305JBJ; 5 September 2000, LawLex200300003315JBJ.

Article L. 413-1 (former Article L. 213-3) of the Consumer Code is applicable provided that products it lists are “intended for sale”. The courts assess this condition fairly broadly taking into account the circumstances of the case and the conduct of the accused. It has, notably, been held that the storage of a falsified product in commercial premises must be regarded not as a simple detention but as a presentation for sale . The same conclusion applies to an offer for sale supported by the sending of a sample of wine accompanied by false statements .

  Cass. crim., 16 June 1970, LawLex200600001583JBJ.

  Cass. crim., 3 May 1974, LawLex200500009048JBJ.

French Consumer Law

564. Food products, beverages, agricultural or natural products intended for sale

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564. Food products, beverages, agricultural or natural products intended for sale

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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