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 debtor of the warranty against latent defects is, according to Article 1641 of the Civil Code, the seller of the thing. The status of seller includes not only the person who has intervened at the last level of the chain of successive sales in relation to the final buyer, but also all the persons who have intervened successively  on the thing in this capacity. Thus, the intermediary seller , li …

Status as seller

The debtor of the warranty against latent defects is, according to Article 1641 of the Civil Code, the seller of the thing. The status of seller includes not only the person who has intervened at the last level of the chain of successive sales in relation to the final buyer, but also all the persons who have intervened successively  on the thing in this capacity. Thus, the intermediary seller , like the manufacturer , has the status of seller . The same applies to the importer, when he was in possession of the thing and contributed to making it available to the buyer . However, an undertaking which intervened in the repair of the vehicle  or in the appraisal operations , specifically because it is the French representative of the brand , but not at the stage of the sale , cannot be bound by the guarantee for latent defects.

The status as a seller can also be transferred in case of transfer of the legal entity. Thus, in the automobile sector, the reseller of vehicles which has taken over a dealership also takes over the obligations resulting from all the contractual and legal guarantees in force on the new or second-hand vehicles sold by its predecessor .

The status as seller must also be retained against the person who completed the transfer deed in his own name and who is mentioned as the owner in the registration certificate, even if the payment was made in the name of another person . The company that leased a vehicle to another company (which did not exercise the option to purchase), before transferring it to the purchaser, is, in its capacity as seller, liable for the warranty against latent defects with regard to the latter, which cannot rely on the warranty exclusion clause in the financial leasing agreement to which it is not a party .

Likewise, it is immaterial that the defendant in the action has sold another person's property when he was merely the lessee, insofar as the warranty against latent defects is not linked to the property but to the sale of the thing . Conversely, a garage owner cannot be regarded as an apparent seller who is bound by the warranty against latent defects simply because the vehicle purchased is presented as “in stock” and not “on deposit”, since any confusion arising from that statement is lifted by the declaration of transfer and the registration certificate, which expressly mention the name of the seller  and a company cannot be regarded as the seller, even apparent, when the French registration deed of the ship sold shows that he is not among its successive owners, even if the purchase price has been paid to him by the buyer and if the loan offer accompanying the sale designated him as seller .

The seller may appoint a person to represent him. Case law considers that the agent can be regarded as the seller when he himself issues invoices presenting him as such and also provides his guarantee . Indeed, in this case, the court considers that the buyer can legitimately believe that this intermediary, with whom he contracts, has the status of seller. The agent is bound by the warranty against latent defects when he neither establishes nor alleges to have mentioned his real status in his dealings with the buyer . Even when the buyer was aware of his status as agent, the courts sometimes go beyond that which is apparent  and oblige the agent to guarantee the latent defects of the thing . 

Successive sellers of a vehicle are liable for the warranty against latent defects against sub-purchasers, even if the action against the original seller is time-barred, CA Rouen, 14 November 2018, LawLex201800001791JBJ. 

CA Pau, 29 October 2019, LawLex201900001313JBJ: the intermediary seller who himself has acquired the defective vehicle cannot escape, in his capacity as a professional, his warranty obligation towards the final buyer; CA Rouen, 27 November 2019, LawLex201900001462JBJ.

 CA Versailles, 21 February 2013, LawLex201300000323JBJ.

CA Grenoble, 1 October 2024, LawLex202400007440JBJ.

 CA Douai, 23 March 2017, LawLex201700000660JBJ.

 CA Douai, 31 March 2016, LawLex201600000784JBJ.

 CA Rennes, 13 January 2012, LawLex201200001674JBJ.

 CA  Montpellier, 18 December 2002, LawLex200700000709JBJ; a person who fails to inform third parties that he is only an agent and behaves like the seller of the vehicle is personally liable to them and is accordingly bound by the warranty against latent defects.

 CA Versailles, 26 November 2009, LawLex201200001871JBJ; CA Aix-en-Provence, 9 May 2012, LawLex201200001548JBJ; Cass. 1re civ., 18 December 2014, LawLex201500000212JBJ, for the agent of the seller of a vehicle on eBay.

CA Pau, 15 October 2024, LawLex202400007849JBJ: the purchaser who, prior to the sale, was aware of the status of his contact person as the seller's agent cannot invoke the theory of the apparent agency agreement to seek liability on the basis of the warranty against latent defects as if he were the actual owner and seller of the vehicle.

 CA  Versailles, 3 May 2002, LawLex200700000724JBJ, retaining the status of seller of a mechanic mandated to sell a vehicle in the name and on behalf of a third party. Cf. CA Rennes, 4 July 1997, LawLex200700000725JBJ.

CA Rennes, 22 June 2018, LawLex201800000976JBJ: the warranty for hidden defects is owed as much by the designer of the thing as by its manufacturer.

 CA Douai, May 30, 2005, LawLex200700000710JBJ, the buyer's action against the manufacturer is thus allowed, even if the defect is due to a design defect and not a manufacturing defect; CA Rennes, 6 September 2007, LawLex201200001895JBJ. Also see Cass. civ. 1re, 9 June 2017, LawLex201700001025JBJ, which stresses that the alleged manufacturer can not be called in warranty when the items examined by the expert witness did not have identification plaques establishing that they were indeed manufactured by that undertaking; Cass. 1re civ., 11 January 2017, LawLex201700000154JBJ, stating that while the sellers of vehicles that have ignited due to a defect affecting their axles cannot be held liable under Articles 1245 et seq. of the Civil Code, which apply to the producer of the defective product, regardless of the private or professional use for which it was intended, they may be held liable on the basis of the warranty against latent defects.

CA Versailles, 29 March 2012, LawLex201200001639JBJ;  CA Montpellier, 8 March 2017, 8 March 2017, LawLex201700000570JBJ; see, when the importer has not intervened in any way in the marketing of the thing, CA Rennes, 22 November 2019, LawLex201900001444JBJ.

 CA Aix-en-Provence, 27 May 1997, LawLex200700000721JBJ, CA Nancy, 5 November 2012, LawLex201300000285JBJ.  See also CA Paris, 28 June 2012, LawLex201200001512JBJ; CA Toulouse, 27 March 2012, LawLex201200001585JBJ.

 CA Toulouse, 19 October 2010, LawLex201200001905JBJ.

 CA Bastia, 22 March 2017, LawLex201700000623JBJ; CA Toulouse, 22 May 2017, LawLex201700000961JBJ; CA Aix-en-Provence, 5 October 2017, LawLex201700001656JBJ; CA Douai, 25 January 2018, LawLex201800000230JBJ; CA Versailles, 22 April 2003, LawLex200400000080JBJ; 23 May 2013, LawLex201400001546JBJ.

 CA Aix-en-Provence, 29 September 2016, LawLex201600001653JBJ: the French representative of an automobile brand is not the debtor of the warranty against latent defects in the absence of any intervention by it in the chain of sale, when the vehicle in question was acquired through an automobile agent from the Belgian importer of the brand, which itself obtained the car from the Korean manufacturer.

 CA Angers, 8 September 2009, LawLex201200001888JBJ.

French Consumer Law

620. Status as seller

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

Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

620. Status as seller

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