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

According to Article 1646 of the Civil Code, a seller who was unaware of the defects of the thing only owes the buyer the refund of the price and the reimbursement of the expenses incurred by the sale . The Court of Cassation has ruled that the difference in treatment resulting from that article between the seller in good faith of a defective item, whose liability is limited to the costs incurred by the sale, and the seller of a non-conforming item, who owes full compensation, does not violate the principle of equal treatment .

According to the trial courts, the good faith of the seller is characterized when it had the item repaired before it was resold , or when the equipment was new and the defects only appeared when it was in use  or when they were ony detectable once the thing was dismantled . The mere fact that the mileage and the model year of a vehicle are not included in the transfer certificate is not sufficient to deduce that the seller knew that the  mileage had been tampered with . Similarly, the seller of a vehicle containing a defect must be considered to have acted in good faith when the letter sent by the manufacturer informing it of the defect was never received and its own seller never sent it any information or asked to see the quad bike when it was a customer and carried out maintenance on it in its workshop .

Case law has defined “costs incurred by the sale” as “costs directly related to the conclusion of the contract” . These costs, which must be justified by the buyer , may include: the cost of the registration document ; the cost of the tax disc ; the cost of the leasing contract , etc. However, the costs incurred after the sale, such as immobilization costs , caretaker fees , repair costs , insurance premiums , interest on the loan taken out to purchase the thing  or the stable and farrier costs generated by the defect of a mare  are excluded.

 Cass. 3e civ., 8 April 2009, LawLex201200001601JBJ, which states that restitution may be only partial.

Cass., 1re civ., 23 October 2019, LawLex201900001361JBJ.

   CA Versailles, 3 November 2000, LawLex200500005112JBJ;  CA Colmar, 25 October 2006, cited above.

   CA Colmar, 20 January 2004, LawLex200700000726JBJ.

   CA Orléans, 22 June 2009, LawLex201200001808JBJ; Cass. 1re civ., 5 November 2014, LawLex201500001228JBJ.

   CA Aix-en-Provence, 3 July 2002, LawLex200700000715JBJ;  CA Montpellier, 25 March 2003, cited above.

  CA Aix-en-Provence, 3 July 2002, cited above;  CA Montpellier, 25 March 2003, cited above;  CA Orléans, 22 June 2009, cited above.

   CA Angers, 24 January 2012, LawLex201200001669JBJ, which holds that insurance premiums cannot be considered as costs incurred by the sale, when they were incurred by the use that the buyers had of the vehicle and the legal insurance obligation incumbent on all drivers;  CA Versailles, 21 February 2013, LawLex201300000323JBJ; December 2019, LawLex201900001509JBJ; but see CA Orléans, 22 June 2009, cited above; CA Rennes, 22

   CA Rennes, 10 October 2008, LawLex201200001881JBJ;  CA Orléans, 22 June 2009, cited above.

  Cass. 1re civ., 16 July 1998, LawLex200500003847JBJ;  CA Amiens, 29 April 2003, LawLex200300003563JBJ.

  CA Montpellier, 25 March 2003, LawLex200700000734JBJ.

 CA Riom, 22 November 2017, LawLex201700001983JBJ.

  CA Montpellier, 28 April 2009, LawLex201200001803JBJ.

   CA Toulouse, 10 April 2012, LawLex201200001555JBJ.

 Cass. 1re civ., 8 February 2005, LawLex200700000707JBJ;  CA Colmar, 27 June 2005, LawLex200600001714JBJ.

   CA Douai, 20 October 2003, LawLex200700000714JBJ.

   CA Montpellier, 25 March 2003, LawLex200700000734JBJ;  CA Rennes, 27 February 2004, LawLex200700000728JBJ;  CA Colmar, 25 October 2006, LawLex200700000729JBJ; CA Rennes, 18 May 2018, LawLex201800000739JBJ; 22 November 2019, LawLex201900001443JBJ.

624. Nature of costs payable by the good faith seller