The obligation for the professional to put in place a “cancellation button” will only apply if it already offers an online subscription option.
The right-wing majority Senate readjusted Friday, with the support of the government, the possibility of electronically terminating a subscription, within the framework of the examination in first reading of the bill in favor of the purchasing power. According to the amendment of former Minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (RDPI with a majority En Marche!), the obligation for the professional to set up a “cancel button» will only apply if it already offers an online subscription option.
This condition is met as soon as the professional offers this option at the time of termination, even if it was not at the time of subscription. The provision will benefit consumers who have concluded their contract at a distance, but also in a store or agency. The amendment also postpones, from February 1, 2023 to June 1, 2023, the deadline for the entry into force of the measure. The Minister Delegate for Trade, Olivia Grégoire, welcomed “a balanced approach, which allows a greater number of consumers to benefit from the electronic termination mechanism“. But, she pointed out, she avoids imposing “disproportionate charges to our small VSEs, our small SMEs“.
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“It avoids a certain number of VSMEs [très petites et moyennes entreprises]contrary to what had been proposed to the National Assembly, to be forced to open a website in order to be able to set up a termination button“, she added. Article 7 of the text initially provided that contracts concluded online could be terminated by the same means, it being up to professionals to set up a “cancel button», an electronic functionality allowing it. The opposition deputies had managed to pass two identical amendments from LR and LFI, extending this procedure to all subscription contracts, concluded online or not.
With regard to insurance contracts, an amendment by the rapporteur LR Daniel Gremillet, also supported by the minister, also provides that they “can be canceled electronically in a few clicks provided that the insurer offers electronic subscription“. And this, even if they were concluded in an agency or by telephone. The Senate has also adopted a provision aimed at facilitating the termination of subscriptions to an on-demand television or audiovisual media service including a tacit renewal clause, for example when the consumer moves house.
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