In 2020, 2.8 million refurbished smartphones were sold in France, i.e. 25% more than in 2019. This caught the attention of fraud enforcement who conducted an exploratory investigation. The first results are in.
In 2020 and 2021, the DGCCRF conducted a national survey in the sector of refurbished smartphones and tablets in 84 stores and websites. The organization found anomalies in 62% of the establishments checked and found that the use of the term “reconditioned” was sometimes exaggerated. Indeed, when we speak of a refurbished product, we understand that it is a device whose functions and components have been tested, or even repaired if necessary. However, the professionals inspected do not always succeed in justifying the use of this rewarding term in relation to simple “second-hand products”.
This is one of the reasons why the regulatory framework for the use of the term “reconditioned” was tightened by a decree of February 17, 2022, requiring the conduct of technical tests and verifications, the possible carrying out of interventions, as well as the erasure of all data of the former owner.
Mainly internal controls
Following this investigation, 27 administrative injunctions and 26 warnings were issued, most of the time due to a lack of pre-contractual information and documentation capable of justifying the claims of “reconditioned” products.
The DGCCRF also regrets that, most of the time, platforms and reconditioners stop at the description of the physical state of the products, contenting themselves for the rest with indicating that they are functional. In the eyes of the organization, it is a “insufficient pre-contractual information on the condition of the products”. “The elements provided to consumers do not allow them to know the possible degree of loss in the quality of use of the equipment”, he adds. the Consumer Code However, it is necessary to provide information on the essential characteristics of the property.
The question arises as to how refurbished products are certified. Legally, this process requires the use of an accredited third-party organization. In fact, this certification often designates internal controls over which, precisely, no control can be exercised, regrets the DGCCRF.
On the warranty side, “the DGCCRF investigators found that pre-contractual information on legal guarantees was often inaccurate, absent or sometimes even misleading […] This is particularly the case concerning the duration of the legal guarantee of conformity, which is two years for second-hand products as well as for new products, with a duration of presumption of the anteriority of the lack of conformity for products used that was brought to a year”, recalls the repression of fraud. According to the latter, “the information provided is often such as to create confusion between the legal guarantee, which is compulsory and free, and the commercial guarantee, which is often chargeable”.
The DGCCRF invites consumers to report problems encountered in connection with the purchase of a refurbished device on the SignalConso platform, where they can be helped with a view to the amicable settlement of any dispute.