Gemini cites a quote rule France dropped in 2017

Short answer: ask Gemini for the best plumbers, electricians, locksmiths or heating engineers in a French city, and in 43 of its 104 answers it warns you that a written quote is mandatory for any job above €150. That threshold has not existed since April 1, 2017. A decree of January 24, 2017 removed it: in France, a home repair professional now owes you a detailed quote before any work, whatever the amount - from the first euro, in the words of the French Economy Ministry. ChatGPT and Perplexity cite no rule at all.

The advice means well: it tries to protect the customer from a dishonest repairman. But it implies that below €150 the tradesperson can skip the quote. That was the 1990 rule. A customer who believes it may accept, with nothing in writing, a job that sounds small.

Gemini protects the customer with a 1990 rule. Since 2017, the quote is owed from the first euro.

What was measured

Our France study, collected on July 30, 2026, asked two buyer questions - the best professionals in a city, with a list of recommendations - in twelve cities and the Paris region, for four home-repair trades: plumber, electrician, locksmith, heating engineer. ChatGPT (gpt-4o-mini) and Gemini answered through their APIs, without web search; so did Perplexity, which searches the web by design. That is 104 answers per engine. We pulled every sentence that talks about the quote (le devis) together with an obligation or an amount: 54 sentences, each read one by one. Then we compared what they say with the law in force, read on October 26, 2026 on economie.gouv.fr, the French Economy Ministry's consumer pages, and in the practical sheet on home repairs published by the DGCCRF, France's consumer-protection authority (April 15, 2024).

What does Gemini say about quotes, and what does the law say?

In 46 of its 104 answers, Gemini states a quote rule that is no longer in force: 43 times the €150 threshold, twice "above a certain amount", once an exemption for "absolute emergencies". That exemption was dropped in 2017 too, as France's National Consumer Institute (INC) points out. Plumbers are the clearest case: 22 answers of 26. The wording comes back almost word for word from one city to the next, in the advice that follows the list of recommended businesses. Yet since April 1, 2017, the decree of January 24, 2017 requires every home repair, servicing and maintenance professional to hand over a detailed quote before starting, whatever the amount; the €150 threshold came from a 1990 decree, which it replaced. None of the study's 1,386 answers says "from the first euro". ChatGPT mentions quotes in 103 answers of 104, to advise comparing several, without ever saying when one is owed. Perplexity, which reads the web, cites no rule either. The old threshold has not left the internet: a French letter-template site still titles a page as a quote request for repairs above €150. In the United States, we saw the assistants draw up the same kind of checklist: what AI tells your customers to check before they call you.

What it means if you are the business

If you are a plumber, locksmith, electrician or heating engineer in France, your customers may arrive with this rule in mind: under €150, no quote. That is not your obligation: yours starts at the first euro. Write it on your website, as text: a detailed quote handed over before any work, free or paid (say which), your hourly rate, your call-out fee. That is the information the DGCCRF asks professionals to give before the contract, and the INC notes that the 2017 decree requires you to publish the prices of your main services on your website. A customer who reads those lines on your site has a reason to choose you over the number on a flyer. It is a reasonable step, not a lever with a known effect: we did not measure whether a price page makes a tradesperson more likely to be named. And if Gemini quotes a 1990 rule to your customers, what does it say about your business? The audit shows you, question by question.

And your business, what do the assistants say?

The Waseit free audit puts to ChatGPT and Gemini the questions your customers type, in their language and for your city. In about 60 seconds you see a score out of 100, the tradespeople named instead of you, the questions where you do not appear and, when Gemini searched Google, the pages it actually read - where what it says about you comes from. It is free, with no account and no credit card; an email address only unlocks the competitors' names and the action plan. It is a dated snapshot, not a ranking: answers change from one day to the next, and we promise no position.

What this does not prove

• These are the models' answers through their APIs, without the user's location; ChatGPT and Gemini answered without web search, Perplexity searched by design.
• Each question was asked once, on July 30, 2026; ChatGPT is gpt-4o-mini, not necessarily the model behind the ChatGPT app, and Gemini may have changed since.
• The measurement covers France and four trades: 104 answers per engine. Two Gemini answers about car garages also cite €150; car repair falls under other rules, and we did not count them.
• We could not open the decree on Légifrance, which blocks automated reading: the rule is read in the pages of the French Economy Ministry, the DGCCRF and the National Consumer Institute.
• We do not know where Gemini gets this threshold; pages still online repeat it, but we have not shown that this is the source.
• This edition describes assistants' answers; it is not legal advice.