Introduction

The French Civil Code (hereinafter ‘CC’) does not (yet) recognise price reduction as a general remedy of contract law. Under French contract law the creditor has merely the choice between forced execution (primarily in kind, or subsidiary, by equivalent) and termination of the contract. However, some applications of price reduction are recognised by means of a custom (e.g. the refaction in internal commercial sales contracts) or legislation (for example Article 1644 CC: actio quanti minoris, Articles 1617 and 1619 CC, Articles 1722, 1724 and 1726 CC, price reduction under consumer sales contracts, price reduction under the Vienna Sales Convention …). All these applications can be situated in special contracts (such as sale contracts, tenancy contracts …) but do not imply a general recognition of price reduction. Nevertheless, there is a growing body of opinion that the remedy of price reduction deserves more attention. As a result of some remarkable judgements of the Court of Cassation, the question whether price reduction has to be recognised as a general and autonomous remedy has been the subject of much debate in doctrine., The influential scholar Mestre ended an overview of jurisprudence that price reduction has to be considered as “un mode d'intervention plus general, une veritable technique du droit commun des contrats”. De La Ascuncion Planes undertook in 2006 an extensive research about this topic. She considers ‘la refaction du contrat’ to be an autonomous judicial and an extrajudicial remedy. The aim of the price reduction is, according to her, to correct contractual imbalances and illegalities.

Road-map to price reduction: projet Catala, projet de la Chancellerie and projet Terré

A few years before the thesis of De la Ascuncion Planes appeared, there was a growing awareness about the modernisation of the 200-year-old Civil Code. The first attempts to modernise the Civil Code were mainly academic and prudent. The first (academic) project is called ‘Projet Catala’ of 2005 and treats the law of obligations and the law of prescription.