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Law No. 75-1334 on Subcontracting
Law No 75-1334 of
Law on subcontracting
Entry into force on
Title I: General
provisions
Article 1
Amended by Law No 98-69 of
Pursuant to this Law, subcontracting shall be
understood to mean the process by which a contractor entrusts, by means of a
subcontract, and under their responsibility, all or part of the execution of a
works contract or public contract concluded with the client to another person
known as the subcontractor.
The provisions of this Law shall apply to transport
operations, in which case the contractor shall be considered as the client and
the co-contractor of the subcontracting transporter carrying out the transport
operations shall be considered as the main contractor.
Article 2
Subcontractors shall be considered as the main
contractor with regard to their own subcontractors.
Article 3
Contractors planning to execute a contract using one
or more subcontractors must, when the contract is concluded and throughout its
duration, have all subcontractors accepted and the conditions of payment for
each subcontract approved by the client; the main contractor shall be bound to
provide the client with the subcontract(s) upon request.
Should the subcontractor not be accepted or the
conditions of payment not be approved by the client
under the conditions laid down in the previous subparagraph, the main
contractor shall nevertheless be obligated to the subcontractor but shall not
be able to invoke the subcontract with regard to the subcontractor.
Title II: Direct payment
Article 4
This Title shall apply to contracts concluded by the
State, the local authorities and public corporations and undertakings.
Article 5
Without prejudice to the acceptance laid down in Article
3, the main contractor must, at the time of submission, indicate to the client
the nature and value of each service they plan to subcontract.
Article 6
Amended by Ordinance No 2000-916 of
Subcontractors who have been accepted and whose
conditions of payment have been approved by the client shall be paid directly
by the latter for the part of the contract executed by the former.
However, the provisions of the previous paragraph
shall not apply when the value of the subcontract is below a threshold which,
for all the contracts laid down in this title, shall be set at 600 euro. This
threshold may be raised by Conseil d'Etat Decree according to variations
in the economic situation. Below this threshold, the provisions of Title III of
this Law shall apply.
With regard to industrial contracts concluded by the
Ministry of Defence, a different threshold may be set by Conseil d'Etat
Decree.
This payment shall be mandatory even if the main
contractor is in liquidation, receivership or temporary suspension of
proceedings.
Article 7
Any waiver of direct payment shall be considered
invalid.
Article 8
The main contractor shall have a period of fifteen
days from receipt of the supporting documents upon which the direct payment is
based to accept them or indicate to the subcontractor the reasoned
non-acceptance.
At the end of this period, the main contractor shall
be considered to have accepted the supporting documents or parts of the
supporting documents they have not expressly accepted or refused to accept.
The notifications laid down in subparagraph 1 shall be
sent by registered letter.
Article 9
The main contractor shall only be able to guarantee
the part of the contract executed by them personally.
When the contractor plans to subcontract a guaranteed
part of a contract, the acceptance of the subcontractors laid down in Article 3
of this Law shall be subject to a reduction in the charge to the part to be
subcontracted by the contractor.
Article 10
This Title shall apply:
To invitations to tender issued more than three months
after the publication of this Law;
To private offering contracts whose signature is
notified more than six months after the publication of this Law.
Title III: Direct action
Article 11
This Title shall apply to all subcontracts that do not
fall within the scope of Title II.
Article 12
Amended by Law No 94-475 of
Should the main contractor fail to pay the monies due
by virtue of the subcontract, one month after notice to pay is given, the subcontractor shall be able to take direct action
against the client. A copy of this notice to pay shall be sent to the client.
Any waiver of direct payment shall be considered
invalid.
This direct action shall apply even if the main
contractor is in liquidation, receivership or temporary suspension of
proceedings.
The provisions of the second subparagraph of Article
1799-1 of the Civil Code shall apply to subcontractors who fulfil the
conditions laid down in this article.
Article 13
Direct action shall only concern the payment
corresponding to the services stipulated by the subcontract and provided to the
client themselves.
The obligations incumbent upon the client shall be
restricted to the amount they still owe the main contractor on the date of
receipt of the copy of the notice to pay laid down in
the previous article.
Article 13-1
Amended by Law No 84-46 of
The main contractor may only assign or guarantee
claims arising from the contract concluded with the client for the sum due to
them for work carried out by them personally.
They shall, however, be able to assign or guarantee
the claims in their entirety provided that they obtain, in advance and in
writing, the personal joint guarantee cited in Article 14 of this Law, with
regard to the subcontractors.
Article 14
In order for the subcontract to be valid, the payment
of all monies due to the subcontractor by the contractor pursuant to the
subcontract shall be guaranteed by a personal joint guarantee obtained by the
contractor from a qualified establishment, approved under conditions laid down
by Decree. However, the guarantee shall not be provided if the contractor has
delegated payment of the subcontractor to the client pursuant to Article 1275
of the Civil Code, up to the amount of the services executed by the
subcontractor. On a temporary basis, the guarantee may be obtained from an
establishment on the list laid down by the Decree implementing Law No 71-584 of
Article 14-1
Created by Law No 86-13 of
For contracts concerning building works and public
works:
-
should the client be aware that a subcontractor who has not been the subject of
the requirements laid down in Article 3 is present on site, they should give
the main contractor the opportunity to fulfil their obligations;
-
should payment of a subcontractor who has been accepted, and whose conditions
of payment have been approved by the client under the conditions laid down by Conseil
d'Etat Decree, not be delegated to the client, the latter must require the
main contractor to prove that they have obtained the guarantee.
The provisions above regarding the client shall not
apply to natural persons building a home for themselves, their spouse, their
own ascendants or descendants or those of their spouse.
Title IV: Miscellaneous
provisions
Article 15
Any clauses, stipulations and arrangements counter to
the provisions of this Law, whatever their form, shall be null and void.
Article 15-1
Amended by Law No 94-638 of
This Law shall apply within the territorial authority
of
With regard to the application of the Law to the
territorial authority of
Nota – Law No 2001-616 2001-07-11, Article 75: In all
the legislative and regulatory texts in force in
Article 15-2
Created by Law No 96-609 of
This Law shall apply to the territorial authority of
Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. It shall apply to subcontracts concluded as of
With regard to the application of the Law to the
territorial authority of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, the first subparagraph of
Article 14 should read: “approved under the conditions laid down by Order of
the Prefect” instead of: “approved under the conditions laid down by Decree”.
Article 15-3
Created by Law No 96-609 of
This Law, with the exception of the final subparagraph
of Article 12, shall apply to the territories of
I – The first subparagraph should read: “approved
under the conditions laid down by Order of the High Commissioner of the
Republic” instead of: “approved under the conditions laid down by Decree”.
II – It shall apply to subcontracts concluded as of
Article 222 IV of Organic Law No 99-209 of
“In all legislative and regulatory provisions in
force:
1. References to the
2. References to the
Territorial Assembly of New Caledonia shall be replaced by references to the
Congress of New Caledonia;
3. References to the
Executive of New Caledonia shall be replaced by references to the Government of
New Caledonia.”
Article 16
Conseil d'Etat Decrees
shall lay down the conditions for the application of this Law.
By the President of the
The Prime Minister: JACQUES CHIRAC
The Keeper of the Seals, Minister for Justice, JEAN
LECANUET
The Minister for Economic Affairs and Finance,
JEAN-PIERRE FOURCADE
The Minister for Defence, YVON
The Minister for Equipment, ROBERT GALLEY
The Minister for Industry and Research, MICHEL
D’ORNANO
The Minister for Commerce and Craft Trades, VINCENT
ANSQUER
Preparatory work: Law No 75-1334
French National Assembly:
Proposal for a Law No 1449:
Report by Mr Lauriol, on behalf of the Committee on
Laws (No 1817) and supplementary report (No 2038);
Discussion of 28 June and
Adoption of
Senate:
Proposal for a Law, adopted by the French National
Assembly, No 100 (1975-1976);
Opinion of the Committee on Economic Affairs, No 144
(1975-1976);
Discussion and adoption of
French National Assembly:
Proposal for a Law, amended by the
Senate (No 2094).
Report by Mr Lauriol, on behalf of
the Committee on Laws (No 2104).
Discussion and adoption of
Senate:
Proposal for a Law, adopted with amendments, No 186
(1975-1976).
Oral report by Mr Jean Sauvage, on
behalf of the Committee on Laws.
Discussion and adoption of
French National Assembly:
Proposal for a Law, amended by the
Senate (No 2127).
Report by Mr Marc Lauriol, on behalf of the Joint
committee comprised of mixed representatives (No 2129).
Discussion and adoption of
Senate:
Report by Mr J Sauvage, on behalf of the Joint
committee comprised of mixed representatives, No 190 (1975-1976).
Discussion and adoption of
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