Unfair competition & consumer protection

Consumer law aims to protect consumers from unfair or misleading business practices and to ensure a fair level of protection for their interests. It applies to all sales or service contracts concluded between professionals and consumers, regardless of their nature or purpose.

Businesses are required to provide fair and transparent information about their products and services so as not to deceive or mislead consumers. In particular, they must offer clear and accurate details regarding their products and services — including their characteristics, prices, and any discounts — and must refrain from making false statements or giving misleading information about their own goods and services, or those of their competitors.

Failure to comply with these obligations may result in civil or criminal penalties for the companies concerned.

Competition law, on the other hand, focuses on sanctioning market disruption and attempts to create confusion in the minds of consumers. Unfair competition may therefore be established — and lead to significant sanctions — in several cases, such as:

• Parasitism, through the appropriation of another company’s marketing efforts;

• Imitation of a competitor’s distinctive signs, such as product packaging or store design, with the intent to mislead consumers;

• Defamation or disparagement, by spreading false information about a competitor’s products or business reputation;

• Diversion of clientele, by unlawfully attracting a competitor’s customers;

• Unfair pricing practices, such as offering abnormally low prices to drive competitors out of the market and subsequently raising prices once competition has been eliminated.