Background: Article 15 of the French law no. 2022-1158 of August 16, 2022 on emergency measures to protect purchasing power introduced an article L.215-1-1 into the French Consumer Code, requiring professionals to provide consumers with “free functionality” enabling them to cancel their contracts.
This obligation applies to contracts concluded by electronic means, and/or to contracts concluded by any other means, provided that on the day of termination, the professional offers the consumer the possibility of concluding contracts by electronic means.
The decree published on June 1 specifies the conditions that must be met by websites for this new cancellation function:
– websites must now include a “terminate your contract” tab or other similar feature
– within this tab, certain fields must be completed/confirmed by the consumer, such as: identity, e-mail/postal address, customer references, desired termination date
– once these fields have been filled in or confirmed, the consumer is taken to a page summarizing his/her termination, where he/she can check/modify the information provided, and validate his/her request by clicking on “notification of termination” (or a similar formula) displayed in legible characters.
Once the consumer has given notice of termination, the trader must confirm receipt of the notice of termination and inform the consumer of the date on which the contract ends and the effects of the cancellation.
This decree came into force on the day of its publication, but the DGCCRF has allowed professionals until September 1, 2023 to become compliant.
Please note: this new text does not grant consumers any new termination rights, but merely simplifies the procedures for terminating contracts.
