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legal & digital

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Professionals providing products and services exclusively intended for other professionals (outside the financial sector) sometimes forget that under the terms of Art. L.221-3 of the Consumer Code, they are required to allow "small" customers (less than six employees) buying outside the scope of their main activity to benefit from certain consumer protection rules, and in particular the right of withdrawal, as soon as the sale has been concluded "off-premises".
This obligation, which is punishable by heavy penalties if ignored, has recently been further strengthened. It has a number of logistical and contractual consequences that we detail below.
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Most contracts concluded by banking institutions are now signed electronically. And this has many advantages: speed of execution, optimized process and document management, close customer experience... But identity fraud is on the rise in the field of consumer credit, and in four recent cases, the courts of appeal have pointed out some weaknesses in the current procedures.
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In 2025, the electronic signature was often questioned in court, with a clear expansion into the B to B leasing sector, which until now seemed to be spared from litigation in this area. The financial stakes remain low, but the judges have gained experience, which has resulted in refusals to recognise the electronic signature for poorly argued cases. On the dark side, legal actors are unable to distinguish between the elements that characterize a qualified (presumed reliable) and unqualified electronic signature. This is worrying because "real" qualified electronic signatures are beginning to appear on the market and one may wonder whether this difficulty will not lead to rejections of qualified electronic signatures even though the professionals who implement them expect the greatest judicial certainty, since they are presumed to be reliable.