Section 5: Provisions relating to the provision or delivery of information or documents on any durable medium other than paper

For the purposes of this Title, a durable medium is any instrument which enables the customer or professional to store information addressed personally to him so that he can refer to it at a later date for a period of time appropriate to the purposes for which the information is intended, and which allows identical reproduction of the information stored.

Subject to the provisions of IIIa of Article L. 533-12, where the professional wishes to make available or provide the customer with information or documents on a durable medium other than paper, the professional shall first check that this method of communication is appropriate to the customer’s situation; he shall ensure that the customer is able to take cognisance of this information and documents on the durable medium envisaged. After…

Unless this is incompatible with the nature of the contract concluded or the financial service provided, the customer may, immediately and at any time during the contractual relationship, object by any means to the use of a durable medium other than paper and request, free of charge, to be provided with a paper medium. He may also carry out all the formalities and obligations incumbent upon him on any other…

Where the professional provides the customer with information and documents via a secure personal space on the Internet, he shall inform the customer of the existence and availability of this information and documents on the secure personal space by any means appropriate to the customer’s situation.

The professional guarantees that information and documents will be accessible for a period appropriate to their purpose. For pre-contractual and contractual documents, this period may not be less than five years after the end of the contractual relationship. When the professional intends to no longer make such information and documents accessible, he shall inform the customer in advance, and within a period of not less than two months, by any…

The provisions of this section do not apply to door-to-door selling and the distance provision of financial services governed by Chapters I and III of Title IV of Book III of this Code and to distance contracts for financial services governed by Chapter II of Title II of Book II of the Consumer Code.

The provisions of this section shall apply to the supply to customers, who are natural persons not acting for business purposes, of the products or services mentioned in Chapter I of Title II of Book II of this Code and in this Book.