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 buyer's negligence does not allow the seller to exempt himself from his warranty obligation , but may lead to a sharing of liability if the buyer has, by his conduct, contributed to his own injury. This is the case when he is negligent before the sale is concluded, by failing to ensure that the thing is adapted to the use he intends to make of it , or when he does not take the necessary precautions before using the purchased products . The same applies when the buyer has subjected the thing to an inappropriate treatment , uses it intensively while it is in the experimental phase  or takes inappropriate action following a breakdown . Finally, the buyer of a vehicle adopts a wrongful behavior when he shows negligence and carelessness in the conservation of the vehicle and refuses all the proposals of the manufacturer and of the seller to remedy the defect at their expense  or fails to repair the vehicle after the judgment confirming the findings of the expert appraisal, although he wishes to exercise an action for a reduction in the price and not for rescission of the contract, and allows the costs due to the latent defect to rise by prolonging the dispute in proportions that are excessive in relation to the value of the good .

However, the seller cannot require the buyer to take precautions not required to limit the harmful consequences of a latent defect, especially when the thing has been destroyed due to this defect . Similarly, the seller cannot accuse the buyer of having failed to carry out a satisfactory control of the quality of the products on receipt, when he delegated this control to the manufacturer, who itself subcontracted it to the seller . Finally, the seller cannot complain that the buyer continued using the thing after discovering the defect when he was economically forced to use it . 

 Cass. com., 28 May 1991, LawLex200500004333JBJ.

 CA Paris, 12 May 1987, LawLex200700000749JBJ; Cass. com., 3 January 1991, LawLex200300003017JBJ.

 CA Amiens, 29 March 2009, LawLex201200001802JBJ.

 Cass. com., 5 July 1988, LawLex200700000747JBJ.

 Cass. 1re civ., 16 June 1992, LawLex200600002147JBJ.

 Cass. com., 11 July 1995, LawLex200700000748JBJ.

 CA Nîmes, 9 December 2004, LawLex200700000746JBJ.

 CA Pau, 31 May 2011, LawLex201200001695JBJ.

 CA Toulouse, 23 January 2013, LawLex201300000389JBJ. See also CA Versailles, 22 February 2007, LawLex201200001867JBJ.

 Cass. 1re civ., 28 March 1995, LawLex200500005013JBJ.

 CA Paris, 5 April 2001, LawLex200500004218JBJ.

627. Negligent buyer