What credit card purchase protection is there in France?

Reader question: Is there anything like the UK’s section 75 on banks in France?

There is no direct equivalent to the UK’s Section 75 consumer protection rules, but a ‘chargeback’ procedure does exist in France, which provides similar protections.

As a reminder, Section 75 of the British Consumer Credit Act makes credit companies jointly liable for any breach of contract or misrepresentation by a retailer or trader, allowing you to make a claim against your credit card company to get your money back, as long as the transaction was for a purchase worth more than £100.

The chargeback procedure similarly allows a consumer who has paid by card to be reimbursed by their bank or card provider, if the seller has not respected their consumer rights.

Although European directives make this possible in certain cases, card issuers such as Visa or Mastercard will often provide greater guarantees.

‘Chargeback’ (or in formal French, rétrofacturation) typically covers issues such as products or services which do not arrive or are not as described, when a firm has gone bankrupt, and unauthorised payments (when, for example, a firm uses your details to sign you up to a monthly subscription when you only made a one-off purchase).

You can exercise this right by contacting your bank with proof and asking it to contact the card issuer.

These protections are less comprehensive than Section 75, as the latter is enshrined in UK law and allows for the full costs of a good or service to be refunded, even if only part has been paid by card.

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