Beauty salons can perform permanent hair removal by pulsed light

An aesthetics firm is in dispute with its franchisor. The outcome of the trial depends on whether or not the activity of pulsed-light hair removal is lawful. The Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence recalls that such depilations, with the exception of those carried out with wax or pliers, must be performed by medical doctors. Thus, all non-medical professionals who perform hair removal using pulsed light may be convicted of unlawfully practicing medicine. The Court of Appeal relies on the settled case law of the Court of Cassation.

The Court of Cassation, however, quashed the Court of Appeal's judgment by reversing its own case law. In the name of the absence of a vested right to a fixed jurisprudence and the denial of a right of access to a judge, the Court of Cassation has ruled that hair removal by pulsed light is no longer illegal and that beauty parlors who practice it can no longer be prosecuted and convicted for the illegal practice of medicine.

The Cour de Cassation explains this development on the basis of recent case-law of the Conseil d’État. It also specifies that this development applies immediately to contracts in progress.