{"id":3013,"date":"2026-11-06T10:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T09:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/example.invalid\/?p=3013"},"modified":"2026-11-13T00:12:44","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T23:12:44","slug":"reserves-livraison-transport-interne-cmr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/reserves-livraison-transport-interne-cmr\/","title":{"rendered":"Damaged goods: what reservations should be made on delivery?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When goods arrive damaged, one of the first steps is to identify the applicable carriage regime: the rules on reservations differ between domestic carriage and carriage governed by the CMR.<\/p>\n<h2>Domestic carriage and CMR: different rules<\/h2>\n<p>Under French law, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000021486442\">Article L. 133-3 of the French Commercial Code<\/a> provides that, in cases of damage or partial loss, acceptance of the goods extinguishes the claim against the carrier unless the consignee sends a reasoned complaint in the prescribed form within three days of receipt, excluding public holidays.<\/p>\n<p>An application for a survey made within the same period under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000039280832\">Article L. 133-4<\/a> also serves as a complaint.<\/p>\n<p>For international road carriage, <a href=\"https:\/\/unece.org\/fileadmin\/DAM\/trans\/conventn\/cmr_f.pdf\">Article 30 of the CMR Convention<\/a> establishes a different regime. Apparent loss or damage must be the subject of reservations no later than delivery. For non-apparent loss or damage, written reservations must be sent within seven days of delivery, excluding Sundays and public holidays.<\/p>\n<h2>Describing the damage precisely<\/h2>\n<p>The distinction matters: under the CMR, a failure to make reservations about loss or damage does not, by itself, extinguish the claim. It creates a presumption that the goods were received in the condition described in the consignment note, but that presumption can be rebutted, as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/juri\/id\/JURITEXT000032313116\">French Court of Cassation confirmed on 22 March 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In all cases, general wording such as \u201csubject to unpacking\u201d has little evidential value. Reservations should describe the damage as precisely as possible: packaging condition, missing or damaged packages, temperature, seals, photographs and delivery circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>A reservation does not, by itself, establish carrier liability. Its absence or lack of precision can nevertheless make proving the damage considerably more difficult.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Before liability is discussed, were reservations made within the correct period, in the required form and under the applicable carriage regime?<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three days under domestic law, seven days for certain non-apparent damage under the CMR: the initial classification of the carriage immediately determines the course of action to be taken.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-droit-des-transports"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3013"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3243,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3013\/revisions\/3243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}