Foreign Perspectives

Although France has been moving online rapidly in recent years, many existing laws and customs don’t fit in well with the online world.

You can certainly buy books and such online no problem. The purchase “contract” is very clear and, even in France, it doesn’t require a signature to buy a book. Having said that, the way that Amazon constantly runs “sales” is probably illegal in France as sales are limited to specific periods of the year here so perhaps someday a French bookshop will get them banned.

You can’t buy commercial goods so easily though as you generally need to prove to them that you’re a business. So, whilst you can sometimes place an order, you sometimes find that they want documentary proof that you are a registered business. Elsewhere in the world, just because you’re a “wholesale” sales outfit doesn’t mean that you aren’t legally allowed to sell to the public, but here it tend to.

Even buying car insurance online doesn’t seem a runner. We could only find one place that would even provide an estimate online and even with them we still have to go in to the office to provide the documentation and pay for it.

So, yes you can buy online in France but there are significant limitations in what they’re allowed to sell you online which don’t apply elsewhere.