Section 1: Definition

The rules on direct marketing by banks or financial institutions do not apply to :

1° Contacts with qualified investors as defined in Article L. 411-2 .1 and with legal entities whose balance sheet total, turnover, assets under management, revenue or workforce exceed a threshold set by decree;

2° Making contact on the premises of the persons referred to in article L. 341-3, except where these persons are contractually linked, with a view to the marketing of financial instruments and savings products, to the companies operating the superstores referred to in article L. 752-1 of the French Commercial Code and articles L. 212-7 and L. 212-8 of the French Cinema and Moving Image Code, and their premises are located on the premises of these shops;

3° Visits to the business premises of a legal entity at the latter's request;

4° Making contact with legal entities, where this relates exclusively to the services referred to in article L. 321-2, section 4;

5° Where the person concerned is already a customer of the person on whose behalf the contact is made, where the transaction proposed corresponds, by virtue of its characteristics, the risks or the amounts involved, to transactions usually carried out by that person;

6° Approaches made on behalf of a credit institution or finance company with a view to offering a contract for the financing of goods or the provision of services meeting the conditions laid down in Section 9 of Chapter II of Title I of Book III of the Consumer Code, or constituting a hire-purchase or hire with purchase option as referred to in Article L. 312-2 of the said Code. The same applies when these contracts are intended for the needs of a professional activity;

7° Without prejudice to the provisions of 6°, approaches made on behalf of a credit institution or finance company with a view to offering hire-purchase or hire-purchase contracts to natural or legal persons other than those referred to in 1°, on condition that the name of the lending institution or company and the cost of the credit or hire are mentioned, failing which the contract will be null and void;

8° Approaches made at the point of sale, on behalf of a credit institution, a finance company, an electronic money institution providing payment services enabling credit to be granted or a payment institution, with a view to offering credit as referred to in Title I of Book III of the Consumer Code;

9° Agreements between the persons mentioned in 1° of article L. 341-3, with the exception of venture capital companies, for the distribution of products, the performance of a transaction or the provision of a service, mentioned in article L. 341-1, with the exception of the provisions mentioned in article L. 341-6. ;

10° Steps taken on behalf of a payment institution or electronic money institution providing payment services enabling credit to be granted with a view to offering a contract for the financing of goods or the provision of services meeting the conditions laid down in Section 5 of Chapter II of Title I of Book III of the Consumer Code;

11° To the distribution to natural or legal persons of simple advertising information, excluding any contractual or pre-contractual document, whatever the medium.