Definition
A self-employed sports coach sells ten sessions to a private customer, €600 paid up front. After three sessions the customer moves away and asks for the remaining seven to be refunded.
The coach politely says no, twice.
The customer then looks on the coach's website for the name of a mediator he could turn to: there is nothing, not on the site, not in the terms of sale, not on the invoice.
That gap is an offence in itself, and it has nothing to do with the merits of the disagreement.
Médiation de la consommation (consumer mediation) is the amicable route for settling disputes between a private customer and a professional: an independent third party, listed on an official register, reviews the file and proposes a solution.
French consumer law requires every professional selling to consumers to guarantee each of them effective access to such a scheme, which means signing up with a mediator before the first dispute arises.
It is not the size of your business that triggers the duty, it is the fact of selling to private individuals: a micro-entrepreneur working alone, with no premises and no staff, is bound exactly like a national chain.
What the duty asks, and what it does not
It comes down to three moves. Sign up with a mediator on the official list of referenced mediators, which usually means an agreement and fees you pay yourself.
Then publish that mediator's details, name, postal address and website, visibly and legibly: on your site, in your Terms and conditions and on your order forms, or by any other appropriate means if you have none of those supports.
Finally, send them again in writing to any customer whose complaint has gone unanswered or unresolved.
This is not an invoice item in the sense of the Mandatory invoice details, so a flawless invoice satisfies none of it.
What the duty does not ask matters just as much.
The consumer must write to you first: without a prior written complaint the mediator turns the request down, just as he turns down one filed after the statutory time limit or already examined elsewhere.
He then proposes a solution within the period the law allows him, and neither you nor the customer is bound to accept it.
Articles L612-1 to L612-5 of the French consumer code say it plainly: the duty is about access, never about the outcome.
Failing it exposes you to an administrative fine imposed by the DGCCRF (the consumer protection authority), heavier for a company than for a sole trader.
€600 collected, €155 already gone: the arithmetic of a dispute
Back to the coach, who falls under the non-regulated liberal professions, so under the general scheme and not Cipav, and declares under BNC (non-commercial professional income).
| What happens | Amount | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Ten sessions sold and collected in 2026 | €600 | €154 of contributions at the 25.6% BNC rate in 2026, plus €1 of vocational training contribution, at the 0.2% rate applying to the liberal professions in 2026 |
| The customer asks for the seven unused sessions back | €420 | Nothing: until the money leaves, declared turnover stays at €600 |
| Refund paid after the mediation | -€420 | The declaration for the period when the money leaves drops by the same amount, backed by a Credit note |
So the dispute is not about €600 of profit: €155 had already gone to Urssaf before the first complaint, and the cost of the mediation stays with you whatever solution is proposed.
The headline contribution rate covers neither the vocational training contribution, nor the chamber levies owed by traders and craftspeople, nor income tax: what reads as a single rate is always paid in several lines.
Two beliefs are expensive here. The first: "I work alone and invoice a handful of private customers a year, so this is not for me."
The duty knows no turnover threshold and no headcount: one single sale to a consumer in the year is enough to trigger it.
The law does leave out a few fields, health and higher education among them, but never on the grounds that a business is small.
The second is sneakier, because it looks like compliance: writing into your terms of sale that "in the event of a dispute, the consumer may use mediation" without having signed up with anyone.
A clause naming no referenced mediator, with an address and a website, gives access to nothing and protects you from nothing.
The official public service fact sheet lists the places those details must appear.
Mediation, legal guarantee, unpaid invoice: three separate routes
Mediation is a route, not a rule of substance.
What you owe a customer when the work does not match what was promised comes from the Legal guarantee of conformity; the mediator merely applies those rules to the file.
Mixing the two leads people to believe that signing up with a mediator increases what they owe the buyer, when all it does is open a door short of the courtroom.
Nor should it be confused with médiation des entreprises, which is reserved for disputes between professionals: joining that scheme does not satisfy the duty aimed at you here.
And it never serves to get you paid.
Facing a private customer who does not settle an invoice, the route remains a reminder, a formal notice, then an Payment order: consumer mediation is brought by the consumer, about performance of the contract, not by you about an unpaid bill.
Legal expenses insurance will cover those proceedings, not the mediator membership fee, which is an ordinary business expense. This page is up to date as of 5 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is a mediator needed when you only work with businesses?
No: the duty covers disputes with consumers, and a business selling exclusively to professional clients falls outside it.
The day a private individual orders, even once, it applies again, and membership has to be in place before the dispute, not after it.
Does mediation force you to refund the customer?
No. The mediator proposes a solution, each side stays free to accept or refuse it, and a reasoned refusal is not a breach.
What is penalised is never having given the customer any way of reaching a mediator, which is an entirely different charge.
Where must the mediator's details appear?
On your website, in your terms and conditions and on your order forms, visibly and legibly, with the mediator's name, postal address and website address.
With no website and no commercial documents, any other appropriate means will do, a notice on display for instance.
They are then sent again in writing to any customer whose complaint has gone without a satisfactory answer.
What does mediation cost the customer?
Nothing: it is free for the consumer, and the professional bears the cost, annual membership included.
That is why so many micro-entrepreneurs discover the duty late, usually at their first dispute, when signing up should have come before the very first sale.
To find out where you stand and get the wording to copy into your terms and conditions, Consumer mediation check settles it in five questions.