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 falsification may result from an unlawful processing operation which alters the physical constitution of the product  . It is thus forbidden to add sugar to grape must  or water   or permeate to milk, to reduce the protein content of products . The offense is constituted even where the added substance is the same as some components of the basic product .
Falsification by unlawful processing is …

Processing

The falsification may result from an unlawful processing operation which alters the physical constitution of the product  . It is thus forbidden to add sugar to grape must  or water   or permeate to milk, to reduce the protein content of products . The offense is constituted even where the added substance is the same as some components of the basic product .

Falsification by unlawful processing is very frequent in the case of wine. Chaptalization, which consists in sweetening the wine to improve it and increase its alcohol content, is authorized but limited according to the quality of the wine and the region of the harvest . The Court of Cassation considered that the addition of sugar to grape must without prior declaration to the competent authority constitutes unlawful processing of a nature to alter its substance and is not in conformity with the rules in force . However, to assess the successive additions to a tank and find its possible over-chaptalization, the analyzes carried out must relate to the same blends to be able to be compared with each other .

Often, falsification is aimed at giving greater value to the product concerned in the eyes of the consumer by according it a quality that it does not possess. This is the case of the addition of glycerine to wine to accentuate its color , the addition of oak chips to give the wine a woody flavor , the treatment of the wine with potassium ferrocyanide, without the intervention of a certified oenologist, in order to stabilize it , the use of a plant protection product in an orchard to accentuate the color of the product , or obtaining a significant rate of nitrate for the conservation of merguez sausages .

  Cass. crim., 15 December 1993, LawLex200600001526JBJ.

 Cass. crim., 23 January 2001, LawLex200400000986JBJ; CA Toulouse, 3 February 2000, LawLex200400000588JBJ. 

  Cass. crim., 22 June 1981, LawLex200600001600JBJ.

   CA Angers, 3 December 1998, LawLex200600001863JBJ.

  CA Paris, 18 October 2000, LawLex200400000592JBJ.

  Cass. crim., 4 December 1979, LawLex200600001599JBJ; 4 March 2014, LawLex201400000659JBJ, noting that the fact of having also, during the use of dealcoholisation process by reverse osmosis within an unauthorized framework, introduced exogenous water - a technique prohibited by a European regulation - characterizes the offense of falsification of foodstuffs.

 Cass. crim., 4 November 2008, LawLex201200001740JBJ.

 Cass. crim., 12 February 1964, LawLex200600001556JBJ, glycerine for wine; 23 June 1977, LawLex200600001597JBJ, alcohol.

 Cass. crim., 15 November 2005, LawLex200600001662JBJ, holding that the material element of the offense of falsification of wine is realized when the scriptural analysis of the chaptalization register kept in the cellars of a castle and concerning other wines produced on various plots of land of the property reveals that maneuvers aimed at falsifying the recording of their enrichment made it possible to conceal the sugar assigned to the over-chaptalization of the drink at issue.

 Cass. crim., 23 January 2001, LawLex200400000986JBJ.

 Cass. crim., 27 May 2008, LawLex201200001742JBJ, and in the same case,  CA Lyon, 15 May 2009, LawLex201200001770JBJ.

  Cass. crim., 12 February 1964, LawLex200600001556JBJ.

  Cass. crim., 6 February 2001, LawLex200600001524JBJ; 18 November 2014, LawLex201400001282JBJ, use of the same method to aromatize cognac.

In particular, falsification may result from the manufacture of a product under conditions which do not comply with the regulations , i.e. the laws, regulations or professional practices , whether national or European . The regulations in question must specifically relate to the category to which the product suspected of having been falsified belongs . Administrative circulars with no binding force  cannot, in principle, form the basis of a falsification complaint. The Court of Cassation, however, recently relied on an administrative circular to convict on the charges of deception and falsification the use of a technique other than the traditional method recognized by this text for flavoring cognac .

Products manufactured abroad and imported into France are also subject to the requirement of conformity before the first placing on the market. In two judgments, the Court of Cassation held that the obligation to check cannot be regarded as a quantitative restriction on imports, contrary to Article 34 TFEU, provided that the national text is justified on grounds of the protection of health . 

  Cass. crim., 3 October 1991, LawLex200600001453JBJ.

  Cass. crim., 15 January 1985, LawLex200600001608JBJ, which states that although the assessment of a commercial use does not establish the falsification, it can only be carried out in the absence of regulations preventing such use.

  Cass. crim., 6 February 2001, LawLex200600001524JBJ.

 Cass. crim., 23 January 1984, LawLex200600001610JBJ.

  Cass. crim., 18 November 2014, LawLex201400001282JBJ.

  Cass. crim., 3 November 1993, LawLex200400001155JBJ; 2 February 1994, LawLex200400001539JBJ: the argument of the French producer prosecuted for deceit who claims to be the victim of discrimination on the grounds that French legislation is more severe than that of the other Member States of the European Union is ineffective.

Manufacture

The material element of the offense of falsification may also lie in the manipulation of the product to alter its substance , which often consists in adding a substance not authorized by the regulations in force to a food product. Thus, the addition of a chemical product  or any unauthorized substance  to a food - for example, a dye not permitted in merguez  - characterizes the offense of falsification. Similarly, the administration to slaughter animals of anabolic and beta-agonist substances   or products having an estrogenic action for non-therapeutic use and without the prescription of a veterinarian  is prohibited. Moreover, the Court of Cassation has recently stated that facilitating the falsification of a foodstuff by the addition of an unauthorized additive by marketing the prohibited product in full knowledge of the facts falls within the scope of the law, regardless of the perpetrator and author and the final destination of the foodstuff .

The courts are required to specify how the substances introduced into the products constitute substances prohibited under the regulations, the use of a product which has been the subject of an unfavorable opinion from the Higher Council of Public Health not being sufficient to characterize the offense of falsification . Very recently, the Court of Cassation held that an informed professional, who, although fully aware of the legislation applicable in France to food additives, deliberately offered for sale rosin ester which he knew was intended for human consumption although such use is prohibited, commits an offense, even if the use of this additive is authorized outside the European Union, where most of his customers live .

 Cass. crim., 7 October 2003, LawLex200600001525JBJ.

 CA Paris, 26 October 1998, LawLex200400000128JBJ.

 CA Angers, 1 July 1999, LawLex200300003623JBJ, upheld by Cass. crim., 5 September 2000, LawLex200300003315JBJ, for food supplements containing bamboo powder, sulfur, copper, chromium, cobalt, silicon, nickel, clay, dolomite, deer horn, proteins of embryonic origin, and shark cartilage and "debacterized" bones.

 CA Paris, 12 January 2011, LawLex201200001398JBJ.

 CA Agen, 9 March 1995, LawLex200400001686JBJ; Cass. crim., 22 March 1990, LawLex200600001448JBJ.

 Cass. crim., 6 October 1976, LawLex200600001555JBJ.

 Cass. crim., 31 May 2016, Lawlex20161082.

 Cass. crim., 1 April 2003, LawLex200300003305JBJ, overturning the court of appeal which retained the offense of falsification, without specifying how the substances introduced into food supplements constituted chemical products prohibited by Article 1 of the Decree of 15 April 1912, or examining whether some of these substances fell within the scope of Regulation No 258/97/EC of 27 January 1997 on novel foods and novel food ingredients.

French Consumer Law

566. Processing

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

566. Processing

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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