AI-assisted selling: informing without misleading or forcing
A sales agent may explain an offer, qualify a need or prepare a quotation. It may not invent a discount, hide an essential limitation, pile up follow-ups until the other party is worn down, or lock the customer into a journey they do not understand. Automation increases the risk of scale; it does not reduce the liability of the trader.
Law verified as at 16 August 2026. This page is not individualised legal advice.
A sale assisted by AI remains subject to the same rules as a sale made by a human. The agent must not supply false or ambiguous information, must not omit a material characteristic, and must not apply pressure that impairs freedom of choice. Before a distance contract, the trader must give the information required by Article L221-5 of the French Consumer Code (code de la consommation). Certain forms of manipulation or exploitation of vulnerabilities are also prohibited by the AI Act. Source: the French Consumer Code ↗(opens in a new tab).
Quotable legal markers
What you need to be able to cite
Misleading presentation
Information that is false or likely to mislead may amount to a misleading commercial practice.
A practice is unfair if it runs counter to professional diligence and distorts the economic behaviour of the consumer.
Misleading means lying, but it also means omitting. The characteristics, the price, the identity, the availability and the rights must be accurate and intelligible.
Pressure may be aggressive even without a threat: repeated solicitations, obstacles placed in the way of refusal, or exploitation of a vulnerability.
Editorial author and publisher: Blue Lemon Agent, a brand of LINDBERGH FORMATION. Method: texts and decisions verified on EUR-Lex, Légifrance, the CNIL, the courts and the competent authorities. Legal review: Mohamadou Hamady DIA, juriste, on 18/08/2026. Updated on 10/09/2026.
The detail, rule by rule
Three families of risk
Unfair commercial practice
Under Article L121-1 of the French Consumer Code (code de la consommation) ↗(opens in a new tab), the general rule is as follows: a practice is unfair if it is contrary to the requirements of professional diligence and materially distorts, or is likely to materially distort, the economic behaviour of the normally informed and reasonably observant and circumspect consumer.
the existence, availability or nature of the product;
its characteristics, results, risks and compatibilities;
the price, the discount, the method of calculation and the fees;
the identity, qualities or authorisation of the trader;
the rights of the consumer and the handling of complaints;
the true commercial intention behind the contact.
Aggressive practice
In turn, Articles L121-6 and L121-7 of the French Consumer Code ↗(opens in a new tab) target harassment, coercion — including physical force — or undue influence that impairs freedom of choice. Practices deemed aggressive include repeated and unwanted solicitations by telephone, fax, electronic mail or any other distance communication tool, subject to the cases where the law authorises them in order to perform a contractual obligation.
What a sales agent may do
present the verified characteristics of an offer;
compare options against a stated and documented set of criteria;
recall a genuine deadline without creating artificial urgency;
propose a quotation and pass on the pre-contractual information;
ask whether the user wishes to continue or to be transferred to a human;
personalise the order of the explanations without concealing decisive information.
What it must not do
invent limited stock, a cut-off date, a testimonial or a certification;
automatically describe the offer as “the best” with no verifiable criterion;
announce a saving calculated on a reference price that was never actually charged;
omit a commitment, a duration, a fee, a restriction or a known risk;
read silence, tiredness or confusion as agreement;
send a follow-up after a refusal, divert the close button or make leaving artificially difficult;
use a vulnerability linked to age, disability, financial insecurity or an emergency to push the sale;
present a probabilistic output as a guarantee.
Manipulation or exploitation of vulnerability that reaches the threshold of Article 5 of the AI Act ↗(opens in a new tab) may in addition amount to a prohibited AI practice, under a separate penalty regime.
Informing before the contract
For a distance or off-premises contract, Article L221-5 of the French Consumer Code ↗(opens in a new tab) requires legible and comprehensible information beforehand about the essential characteristics, the price, the identity and contact details of the trader, the arrangements for performance and for complaints, the guarantees, the duration and, where one exists, the right of withdrawal.
An agent must not simply drop a link to the terms and conditions once agreement has been given. The decisive information must be presented before the consumer is bound. For a contract concluded by telephone following canvassing, the offer must be confirmed on a durable medium and the consumer is bound only after signature or written acceptance in the form the text requires.
Under Article L442-1 of the French Commercial Code (code de commerce) ↗(opens in a new tab), liability may be incurred by a party who, in negotiating, concluding or performing a contract, obtains or attempts to obtain an advantage with no consideration in return or manifestly disproportionate to it, or subjects its trading partner to obligations creating a significant imbalance.
A B2B purchasing or sales agent must therefore:
apply the approved discount and negotiation limits;
not introduce an unapproved clause into the summary;
log contractual amendments;
flag requests that fall outside the mandate;
avoid any asymmetry built on the opacity of the interface.
Leading case law
Cour de cassation, Criminal Division, 11 July 2017, n° 16-84.902
In a dispute over an online promotion, the decision restates the importance of the reference price actually charged and of assessment by reference to the average consumer.
Transposition: an agent must not calculate a discount on a fictitious price, nor turn a comparison of unlike things into a certain advantage.
Cour de cassation, Criminal Division, 10 September 2019, n° 18-85.315
The Court separates the elements capable of establishing aggressive commercial practices — pressure and repeated solicitations — from those that belong to misleading commercial practices, such as fake winnings, gifts or claims about origin.
Transposition: one and the same conversational scenario may attract several classifications at once; correcting a false sentence is not enough if the pressure remains.
Penalties
Misleading commercial practices are punishable by two years of imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 euros. The fine may be raised to 10 % of the average annual turnover of the last three financial years, or to 50 % of the expenditure on the practice; a rate of 80 % is provided for certain environmental claims. Where a misleading commercial practice is committed by means of an online service or a digital medium, the penalties are raised to five years and 750,000 euros.
Aggressive commercial practices are punishable by two years and 300,000 euros, the fine being able to reach 10 % of the average annual turnover. The prison term rises to three years if the practice was followed by one or more contracts, and to seven years where it is committed by an organised gang. A contract concluded as a result of an aggressive commercial practice is null and of no effect. For both classifications, penalties applicable to legal persons, prohibitions and publication of the decision may be added.
Knowledge base approved for prices, stock, lead times and guarantees.
Limitations and costs are presented before the commitment.
No urgency, social proof or certification is generated freely.
A firm refusal ends the sales scenario.
Follow-up frequencies and channels are capped.
Vulnerable audiences trigger a cautious escalation.
The recommendation separates facts, assumptions and estimates.
The contract summary reproduces the offer that was actually accepted.
Any B2B amendment falling outside the mandate requires human approval.
Testing includes scenarios of pressure, pricing error and omission.
Frequently asked
What we get asked most
Can an error produced by the model be a misleading commercial practice?
Yes, if the false claim or the omission is attributable to the trader and is capable of distorting the behaviour of the consumer. The absence of intention on the part of the model does not erase the effect of the practice.
Is it permitted to display “only two seats left”?
Only if the information is accurate, kept up to date and presented without creating false urgency. An artificial counter is particularly risky.
How many follow-ups are permitted?
There is no single figure that applies to every channel. The frequency, any refusal expressed, the context and the specific prospecting rules all count. Once objection has been expressed, follow-up must stop.
Is a link to the terms and conditions enough before the sale?
Not if the essential information is not legible and comprehensible before the commitment. The journey must bring the decisive elements to the fore.
