1. Book prices

In the case of private works contracts, freedom of contract is the rule, and more specifically the rules on price freedom contained in Book IV of the French Commercial Code (article L. 410-2) (which had been adopted when Ordinance no. 2000-912 of September 18, 2000 was codified).

However, a limit was added to this freedom of pricing. The same article of the Commercial Code specifies that the government may intervene, after consulting the National Consumer Council, by decree issued by the Council of State, in order to combat excessive price rises or falls, or to take provisional measures motivated by :

• a crisis situation;

• exceptional circumstances ;

• a public calamity;

• a manifestly abnormal market situation in a given sector....