Legal assurance of compliance: new obligations as of 1 October 2022

Decree No. 2022-946 of 29 June 2022 follows Order No. 2021-1247 of 29 September 2021 in order to transpose two European Directives (EU) 2019/770 and (EU) 2019/771 of 29 May 2019. The aim of these texts is to modernize the legal guarantee of conformity and consumer contracts in order to strengthen consumer protection.

Amendments relating to the general obligation to provide pre-contractual information

The following information has been added to the information which a trader must provide to the consumer:

• the existence and implementation of the legal guarantee of conformity, the legal guarantee of hidden defects or any other applicable legal guarantee;
• the existence and arrangements for implementing the commercial guarantee and after-sales service;
• where applicable, the functionalities of the digital content, including applicable technical protection measures, and any relevant compatibility and interoperability with certain digital goods, digital content or services, as well as with certain hardware or software, of which the trader is or should reasonably be aware;
• use of the terms ‘legal guarantee’ and ‘commercial guarantee’ to provide greater clarity to the consumer.

Information about security updates

In order to adapt to digital products (software, subscription to a digital channel, mobile applications...), new information about security updates and their duration must be communicated by the professional in a visible and comprehensible way:

• the software of the asset being updated, including security updates;
• the period of supply of the update or the date on which that supply ends;
• the purpose of the update (security requirement or evolution of the functionalities of the asset);
• the versions of the operating system, software or computer driver concerned with which this update is compatible;
• The amount of storage that the update requires.
• the possible consequences of the update on the performance of the property (on the available storage space, the availability of the random access memory or the lifetime of the battery).

Using the required sidebar

For contracts for the sale, ad hoc or continuous supply of digital content and services, the general conditions will henceforth include a box informing the consumer of the implementation of the legal guarantees. The boxes in question are available in the annex to Decree No. 2022-946 of 29 June 2022.

Procedures for returning the goods

As part of the implementation of the legal guarantee of conformity, the seller must now inform the consumer of the practical arrangements for returning the goods when compliance cannot take place at the place where the sold appliance is located.