Short answer. Yes. Article 1417 says that when the price of an article or commodity is fixed by statute or by authority of law, any person paying an amount in excess of the maximum price allowed may recover such excess. You can get back the difference between what you paid and the legal ceiling.
What the law says
any person paying any amount in excess of the maximum price allowed may recover such excess
Civil Code, Article 1417 — Recovery of Price Above a Legal Maximum. Read the full provision →
The law lets you recover the overcharge
Article 1417 is written to protect the buyer who was made to pay too much for a price-controlled good. It provides that when the price of any article or commodity is determined by statute, or by authority of law, any person paying any amount in excess of the maximum price allowed may recover such excess. The remedy is targeted: you do not undo the whole sale, you claw back the portion above the ceiling. The reasoning is that a legally fixed maximum is a matter of public policy, and a seller cannot keep money collected in violation of it. The overcharge is recoverable precisely because the ceiling was set by law, not merely by private agreement.
When the article applies
Two things must be true. First, the price must be one determined by statute or by authority of law — an official maximum, not just a price you feel was unfair or higher than a competitor's. Ordinary market pricing, however steep, does not trigger this rule. Second, you must have actually paid an amount above that maximum. Once both are present, the excess — the gap between what you handed over and the lawful ceiling — is what you may recover. The article speaks of any person paying the excess, so the right is not limited to a particular class of buyer.
What you cannot use it for
The article does not let you recover the entire price or cancel the transaction; you keep the goods and reclaim only the overcharge. It does not apply where no legal maximum exists — a price freely negotiated in an open market is not governed by it, no matter how high. It also does not, by itself, set the penalties or other consequences a price-control law might separately impose on the seller; those are matters for the specific statute that fixed the ceiling. Article 1417 is a civil recovery rule for the buyer, focused on returning money collected above a lawful cap.
Practical points
To make use of this rule, you generally need to identify the legal maximum that applied to the commodity and show what you paid above it, so proof of the price and of the official ceiling matters. Because the recovery is measured by the excess, keeping receipts or other records of the amount charged is sensible. Whether a particular good was actually under a legally fixed price at the relevant time is a factual question, and the answer can turn on the specific regulation in force. Where a ceiling did exist and you paid over it, the Code is clear that the excess is yours to recover.