Distance purchasing: conclusion of the contract

Verified 10 May 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

You have just given your consent to a professional to buy a product on the Internet, by mail order, by teleshopping or by telephone and you wonder how your agreement should be recorded?

This finding differs depending on whether the purchase was made on the Internet or by another means.

All contracts for the sale of goods or the provision of services (including digital content or digital services) are covered by the following information.

However, distance selling of financial services is not covered in this fiche.

On the Internet

When you place an order on the Internet, the seller must send you, on durable support, confirmation of the contract.

This should include the following:

  • Essential characteristics of the good, ordered service, service or digital content
  • Price of the good, ordered service, service or digital content
  • Accepted means of payment and possible delivery restrictions (at the latest at the start of the ordering process)
  • Delivery time or date
  • Identity and postal, telephone and electronic contact details of the trader
  • Name or business name of the trader, geographical address of his establishment or if different from his registered office
  • Duration of the contract and if necessary your duration of engagement (contract tacit renewal such as a contract with a telephone operator)
  • Technical means that allow you, before the conclusion of the order, to identify your errors in data entry and correct them (mandatory fields)
  • Existence and condition for the exercise of the legal guarantee of conformity, the guarantee of hidden defects and any other applicable legal warranties
  • Existence and conditions for the exercise of the right commercial guarantee and after-sales service
  • Terms of the right of withdrawal + withdrawal form
  • Circumstances in which you cannot exercise your right of withdrawal or you lose it
  • Conditions for archiving and access to the contract
  • Conditions for dealing with appeals against the trader
  • Possibility of recourse to a consumer ombudsman

The seller can inform you about the following:

  • Various steps to complete the order
  • Languages proposed for the conclusion of the contract
  • Means of consulting electronically the professional and commercial rules which he undertakes to follow

The seller who does not comply with his obligations to provide information may be fined €75,000 maximum.

In this case, recourse is possible.

In order for the order to be valid, you must have had the opportunity to check the details, the total price and correct any errors before confirming it.

You must also have been clearly and legibly informed of the means of payment accepted by the seller and any delivery restrictions.

If these rules have not been complied with, the contract shall be considered invalid.

Your consent is expressed in a double-click (2 mouse clicks):

  • on 1er click to validate your order,
  • on 2nd click to confirm your order permanently after having checked it and, if necessary, corrected it.

In the absence of double-click or information on the obligation to pay, the sale is considered invalid.

The seller must ensure that when placing your order, you explicitly acknowledge your obligation to pay. The function used to validate your order must include one of them the following statements:

  • Order with payment obligation
  • Equivalent formula indicating that the placing of an order requires its payment.

The seller must also ensure your consent for any paid option in addition to the price of the main item of the contract. It is prohibited to pre-check boxes for additional paid benefits.

Once your order has been completed, the seller must acknowledge receipt by electronic means, without undue delay, unless the contract has been concluded exclusively by email.

The order, its confirmation and the acknowledgement of receipt are considered as received when you and the seller can have access to it by email or from a printable page that can be consulted on the site for example.

An electronically concluded contract for a sum equal to or greater than €120 must be archived by the seller:

  • if the goods or services are delivered immediately, for a period of 10 years from conclusion of the contract,
  • in other cases, for a period of 10 years from delivery date or execution of the goods or services.

If you request it, the seller must give you access at any time to the contract.

Please note

for contracts involving an amount less than €120, no record-keeping obligation is foreseen.

By phone, by mail...

You can give your agreement in writing or orally on an order for goods or services.

The agreement is written when you send, for example, a signed purchase order.

The agreement is oral when you call the seller and place an order over the phone. In this case, your handwritten signature is not required to confirm the order. However, you will receive a written confirmation from the professional.

However, when it is the professional who calls you to conclude, and not to propose a modification or extension of a contract (we speak of canvassing telephone), your consent is required. The latter must be written or materialized by electronic means.

The trader also informs you to the consumer that you have the possibility to register for free on the list of opposition to telephone solicitation if you do not wish to be the subject of commercial prospecting by this means.

The professional should give you the following information:

  • Identify yourself at the beginning of the phone conversation
  • Indicate the commercial nature of the call
  • Where applicable, the identity of the person on whose behalf he is acting

By telephone, this information is limited to the communication of essential information (identity of the trader, characteristics, price, duration of the contract, right of withdrawal). The other mandatory information are transmitted by any other means adapted to the remote communication technique (mail, USB key, personal account, etc.).

The trader must send you a written confirmation of the offer he has made on paper or on another durable support. This offer must contain mandatory pre-contractual information. V

You are hired only after you have signed and accepted the contract offer in writing or have given your consent electronically.

FYI  

your consent can only be given after the end of the telephone call and after receipt of the confirmation of the offer, i.e. after sufficient time to examine the commercial proposal.

The seller who does not comply with his obligations to provide information may be fined €75,000 maximum.

In this case, recourse is possible.

Who can help me?

Find who can answer your questions in your region

  • 0809 540 550 DGCCRF - ResponseConso

    Having trouble following a purchase? Do you have a question about a point of law before buying or ordering?

    You can get an answer from a DGCCRF: titleContent by calling the 0809 540 550.

    Opening hours of the service:

    No surtax number

    • Monday and Tuesday: from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm and from 1:15 pm to 5:15 pm
    • Wednesday: 13:15 to 17:15
    • Thursday: from 8:30 to 12:30
    • Friday: from 8:30 am to 4 pm