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 intermediary seller summoned by his buyer may take action against its own seller if the defect is prior to their own sale. In this case, the point of departure for the short period of time runs not from the date on which the buyer himself became aware of the defect, nor from the date of the first joint appraisals , but from that on which he was summoned by its buyer . In concrete terms, this d …

Recourse action

The intermediary seller summoned by his buyer may take action against its own seller if the defect is prior to their own sale. In this case, the point of departure for the short period of time runs not from the date on which the buyer himself became aware of the defect, nor from the date of the first joint appraisals , but from that on which he was summoned by its buyer . In concrete terms, this date corresponds to the day of the summons before the  first instance court , and not that of the notice of an interim application for an expert appraisal. In fact, the latter tends not to implement the warranty against latent defects but to determine the causes of the damage . The time-limit under Article 1648 of the Civil Code therefore starts to run, at the earliest, on the date of the declaration to the court registrar filed by the sub-buyer  and its starting point may be deferred until the date of the conviction judgment .

Exceptionally, some court have fixed the starting point of the period for the recourse action at the date of knowledge of the defect by the intermediary seller, in particular on the grounds that proof of the knowledge of the defect by the intermediary seller was, prior to the date of the summons for a substantive examination of the case, amply provided . Moreover, the date of knowledge of the defect by a dealer was also retained to mark the starting point of the short period, in a dispute which evolved after an initial judgment, due to new findings of the expert, which made it possible to determine the exact origin of a defect . In the absence of summons before the court of first instance, when the buyer has obtained a provision from the interim relief judge which he considers satisfactory, it was also held that the short period of the recourse action ran from the date of knowledge of the defect by the intermediary seller, i.e. the date of submission of the preliminary expert report on the basis of which the sub-buyer obtained the provision . 

  Cass. com., 24 March 2004, LawLex200500003950JBJ; overturning on this point CA Lyon, 9 November 2001, LawLex200500005521JBJ.

  Cass. com., 9 July 1991, LawLex200500005458JBJ, overturning CA Poitiers, 30 November 1988, LawLex200500009859JBJ; 22 March 1994, LawLex200500004989JBJ; Cass. 1re civ., 24 October 2000, LawLex200500008953JBJ; Cass. com., 1 April 2003, LawLex200300001374JBJ; Cass. 3e civ., 20 October 2004, LawLex200400003412JBJ; Cass. 1re civ., 13 March 2008, LawLex201200001467JBJ; Cass. 3e civ., 11 March 2014, LawLex201400000507JBJ. See also CA Colmar, 14 November 2007, LawLex201200001943JBJ; CA Douai, 23 May 2011, LawLex201200001909JBJ; CA Angers, 13 February 2018, LawLex201800000296JBJ.

  CA Aix-en-Provence, 13 May 2014, LawLex201400002032JBJ; CA Montpellier, 13 October 2015, LawLex201600000394JBJ.

  Cass. com., 22 May 2012, LawLex201200001444JBJ; Cass. 3e civ., 28 May 2025, LawLex202500004409JBJ.

  Cass. com., 17 October 2012, LawLex201300000231JBJ.

  Cass. 1re civ., 25 February 2016, LawLex201600000506JBJ.

 CA  Paris, 22 March 2002, LawLex200500003796JBJ.

  CA Angers, 8 September 2009, LawLex201200001888JBJ: the implication of the manufacturer six months after the dealer became aware of the defect, thanks to the expert's new findings on the exact origin of a defect affecting a vehicle, met the short period condition.

  CA Agen, 13 September 2000, LawLex200300004144JBJ, upheld by Cass. 1re civ., 25 February 2003, LawLex200300003535JBJ.

French Consumer Law

631. Recourse action

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

631. Recourse action

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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