FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Diane Bandon-Tourret and Agathe Clarac, LexCase
legal entity during its last financial year, but may not exceed 0.1% of this turnover. The total of the sums requested for the liquidation of the peri - odic penalty payment may not exceed 5% of the worldwide pre-tax turnover for the last financial year for which the accounts have been closed. It can also take more severe measures, in par - ticular police decisions, following a procedure described in Article L. 521-1 et seq of the French Consumer Code. Specific measures are detailed for establishments and products (Articles L. 521- 5 to L. 521-18) and services (Articles L. 521-19 to L. 521-26). 2. Product Liability 2.1 Product Liability Causes of Action and Sources of Law Product Liability This regime is covered by Article 1245-1 et seq of the Civil Code, which transpose Coun - cil Directive 85/374/EEC of 25 July 1985 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the member states concerning liability for defective products. This is the so-called objective liability regime, under which the producer is liable for damage caused by a defect in his/her product, whether or not he/she is bound by a contract with the victim. A producer, when acting in a professional capac - ity, is the manufacturer of a finished product, the producer of a raw material or the manufacturer of a component part. Any person acting in a professional capacity is deemed to be a producer:
• who presents himself/herself as a producer by affixing his/her name, trade mark or other distinctive sign to the product; and • who imports a product into the European Community with a view to sale, hire, with or without a promise to sell, or any other form of distribution. If the producer cannot be identified, liability lies with: • the seller; • the lessor, with the exception of the finance lessor or the lessor assimilated to the finance lessor; or • any other professional supplier. These intermediaries are then liable for the prod - uct under the same conditions as the producer or assimilated producer itself, unless the inter - mediary designates his/her own supplier or the producer, within a period of three months from the date on which the victim’s claim was notified to him/her. The CJEU ruling of 19 December 2024 ( “Ford Italia v ZP” ) has recently extended the concept of “person presenting himself as the producer” , whose liability may be sought under the prod - uct liability regime, to the supplier of a product where that supplier has not physically affixed his/ her name, its trade mark or any other distinctive sign on the product, but the trade mark affixed by the producer on the product coincides, on the one hand, with the name of the supplier or a distinctive element thereof and, on the other hand, with the name of the producer. The supplier’s claim against the producer is gov - erned by the same rules as a claim by the direct victim of the defect. However, he/she must act within one year of the date on which he/she is
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