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

Article 1245-13 (former Article 1386-14) of the Civil Code stipulates that “the liability of the producer towards the victim shall not be reduced on the grounds of the act of a third party having contributed to the occurrence of the damage” . This text does not specify whether the act of a third party presenting the characteristics of force majeure can exempt the producer. The Court of Appeal in T …

Acts of third parties

Article 1245-13 (former Article 1386-14) of the Civil Code stipulates that “the liability of the producer towards the victim shall not be reduced on the grounds of the act of a third party having contributed to the occurrence of the damage” . This text does not specify whether the act of a third party presenting the characteristics of force majeure can exempt the producer. The Court of Appeal in Toulouse considered that the seller and the supplier cannot automatically absolve themselves of their liability by invoking the force majeure constituted by the possible errors of the administrative control services before the commercialization when the Law of May 19, 1998 on defective products sets out exhaustively the causes of the exemption, which does not include force majeure . Similarly, to allow the exemption of the third party in the event of force majeure would be incompatible with Union law, since the grounds for exemption laid down in Directive No 85/374 must be strictly interpreted  and that this text not only does not mention force majeure, but excludes in Article 8(1) the limitation of the liability of the producer as a result of the intervention of a third party.

Independently of force majeure, the trial courts have traditionally held that the fault of a third party is neither a cause of exemption, nor a cause of reduction of the producer's liability . The producer cannot legitimately rely on the fault committed by the departmental veterinary laboratory which failed to implement the means necessary to detect the presence of trichinae in the horsemeat which he markets, in order to escape his liability  According to the Court of Cassation, the intervention of the pharmacist who packaged and delivered a medicinal product does not relieve the manufacturer of its liability given the poor presentation of its product, likely to create a danger for the user . Similarly, it was held that an importer, equated to a producer, cannot exonerate himself from his liability under Articles 1245 (former Article 1386-1) et seq. of the Civil Code, on the grounds of non-compliance by the distributor of the procedure for recalling the defective product, since the fault of a third party is expressly excluded by Article 1245-13 (former Article 1386-14) . Similarly, the contribution of the fault of a hospital practitioner to the occurrence of the damage is irrelevant when the damage claimed by the patient results from the harmful migration of the defective implant into her pulmonary artery .

The liability of the producer towards the victim is not lessened by the fact that a third party contributed to the damage, but the liability for fault of the reseller may be sought in the relationship between those professionals, CA Paris, 7 September 2020, LawLex202000002199JBJ;  CA Douai, 1 June 2023, LawLex202300007727JBJ, noting that the contribution of a third party to the occurrence of damage does not reduce the strict liability of the producer of a product if its defectiveness is one of the causes of the damage.

  CA Toulouse, 14 December 2004, LawLex200500008595JBJ

  Case C-203/99 Henning Veedfald, Judgment of 10 May 2001, LawLex200900001108JBJ.

  CA Dijon, 17 April 2007, LawLex201200001649JBJ, holding that it follows from the provisions of Articles 1386-11 and 1386-14 (now Articles 1245-10 and 1245-13) of the Civil Code that the fault of a third party is neither a cause of exemption nor a cause of reduction of the liability of the producer;  CA Reims, February 16, 2009, LawLex201200001848JBJ; CA Aix-en-Provence, 5 July 2018, LawLex201800001053JBJ: the electricity provider is automatically liable when an electrical surge damaged the equipment on the premises of the plaintiff undertakings and caused a fire from an electric coffee maker located on the premises of another undertaking located in the same building, with no possibility of arguing, by way of exoneration, that the occurrence of the fire was attributable to the defect of the coffee maker which, according to the standards in force, should have been protected from such an incident, since, as the said coffee maker belonged to a third party in relation to the complainants, a defect in it could not be invoked against them.

   CA Toulouse, 22 February 2000, LawLex200600001047JBJ.

  Cass. 1re civ., 21 June 2005, LawLex200600001041JBJ.

   CA Paris, 8 September 2015, LawLex201600000618JBJ.

Douai, 22 September 2022, LawLex202200008024JBJ.

French Consumer Law

682. Acts of third parties

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682. Acts of third parties

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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