In a decision dated 14 May 2025, the French Supreme Court clarified that “Article 1112-1 of the French Civil Code stipulates that the duty to provide pre-contractual information only applies to information that is directly and necessarily related to the content of the contract or the quality of the parties, and whose importance is decisive for the consent of the other party”.
In the case at hand, the assignee and the assigned company sued the assignor for compensation for intentionally concealing information that made it impossible to carry out the desired fast-food business, in view of restrictions on the operation of the business, linked in particular to the co-ownership regulations making it impossible to “fry food.”
The French Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision to reject this claim on the grounds that it had not been demonstrated that the impossibility of “frying food” was a determining factor in the assignee’s consent to acquire a fast-food business in accordance with Article 1112-1 of the French Civil Code.
