French Consumer Code
In forceSubject to the provisions of article L. 132-24-1, a trader is prohibited from:
1° Blocking or limiting a consumer's access to its online interface, by using technological or other measures, for reasons relating to the consumer's place of residence on national territory.
A trader shall also be prohibited from redirecting a consumer, for reasons connected with his place of residence, to a version of his online interface which is different from the one he initially wished to access, unless he has expressly given his consent to that effect. Where consumers are redirected after having given their consent, they must continue to be able to easily access the version of the trader's online interface that they initially wanted to access.
The prohibitions set out in the first two paragraphs of this 1° shall not apply where the blocking, limiting of access or redirection is necessary in order to comply with a legal requirement applicable to the trader's activities; in such cases, the trader shall provide a clear and precise explanation to the consumer as to why the blocking, limiting of access or redirection is necessary for compliance purposes;
2° To apply, for reasons connected with the consumer's place of residence on the national territory, different general terms and conditions for the sale of goods or the provision of services in cases where that consumer seeks to :
a) Purchase goods from a trader and those goods are either delivered to a place to which delivery is offered in the trader's general terms and conditions of sale, or collected from a place defined by common agreement between the trader and the consumer and for which the trader offers such an option in his general terms and conditions of sale;
b) Obtaining services provided by a trader by electronic means;
c) Obtaining services from a trader, other than services provided by electronic means, at a location in the geographical area where the trader carries on business.
The prohibitions set out in the first four subparagraphs of this 2° shall not prevent the trader from offering general terms and conditions of sale, in particular net selling prices, which vary from one place to another and which are offered on a non-discriminatory basis to customers residing in a specific geographical area or to certain groups of customers ;
3° To apply, on grounds relating to the location, within the national territory, of the consumer's residence, his payment account, the payment service provider or the issuing of the payment instrument, different conditions to payment transactions carried out by consumers using the means of payment accepted by that professional, where:
a) The payment transaction is made by means of a payment service mentioned in 1° to 7° of II of Article L. 314-1 of the Monetary and Financial Code;
b) Authentication requirements are met pursuant to Article L. 133-4 of the same code;
c) The payment transaction is made in a currency that the professional accepts.
Where justified by objective reasons, the prohibition set out in this 3° shall not prevent the trader from suspending the delivery of the goods or the provision of the service until he receives confirmation that the payment transaction has been duly initiated.
