By Raphaël MORENON
3 August 2025
Regulations on usury are designed to protect borrowers against manifestly excessive interest rates. When credit is classified as usurious, the consequences for the lender are not limited to a simple contractual correction. French law has put in place an arsenal of penalties, both criminal and civil, to punish such practices. Understanding these mechanisms is essential for any borrower, whether an individual or a professional, in order to assert their rights. As we explain in our guide to the regulation of usury under French law, determining whether a loan is usurious is governed by technical rules that then call for the application of rigorous penalties. The diversity of penalties for usury The classification of a loan as usurious opens the way to a twofold sanction. From a criminal point of view, usury constitutes an offence for which the penalties can be severe. In civil law, the contract...
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