The conviction once again highlights the jungle represented by the collection and sale of personal data: the National Commission for Information Technology and Liberties (CNIL) announced Tuesday April 9 having condemned the company Hubside.Store a fine of 525,000 euros. In question: the use “for commercial prospecting purposes of data provided by data brokers, without ensuring that the persons concerned had validly consented to being canvassed”explains the commission.
Hubside.Store is a company specializing in the repair, reconditioning and resale of electronic products, such as cell phones or computers. According to its official website, it currently has around forty physical stores on French territory. To attract customers, the company resorted to cold calling and text messaging using lists of contacts (so-called “leads”) purchased from data brokers (data brokersin English), publishers of competition or product testing sites.
It is the origin of these contacts which poses a problem for the CNIL: the people who gave their contact details were not clearly informed of the fact that they could subsequently be contacted by Hubside.Store, due to “the misleading appearance of collection forms”.
A trial in September in Paris
The CNIL also considers that Hubside.Store’s practices during canvassing were not legal either: “During its cold calling operations, the company did not allow people to be sufficiently informed, in violation of Article 14 of the GDPR. » The amount of the fine imposed represents approximately 2% of the company’s turnover, specifies the CNIL, which considers that such an amount is legitimate. “with regard to the seriousness of the breaches identified and the responsibility assumed by the organization using the data collected”.
Hubside.Store and its parent company, Indexia Group, which specializes in cell phone and electronic device insurance, are regularly denounced for their aggressive sales techniques. Many consumers complain for example of “abusive deductions” concerning insurance products to which they do not remember having knowingly subscribed.
Previously called the French Multimedia Insurance Company (SFAM), Indexia was fined 10 million euros in 2019 for misleading commercial practices. The company, its various subsidiaries and its founder, Sadri Fegaier, are currently the subject of several trials, one of which is to be held at the end of September before the Paris Criminal Court, reports UFC-What to choose.