New investigations push the UFC-Que Choisir to file a complaint against the French giant of refurbished high-tech products, Back Market.
The association specializing in the defense of the rights of French consumers regrets that nearly six months of exchanges of letters between the two structures were not enough to reverse the trend.
A complaint filed against Back Market at the Paris Court
This Wednesday, June 15, the UFC-Que Choisir goes into high gear against one of the unicorns of French Tech, Back Market. Several grievances against the platform specializing in connecting sellers of refurbished tech products and potential buyers are invoked by the UFC.
The first concerns service charges. Indeed, the association is concerned that these are not mentioned by Back Market on the product sheet and only appear once the product has been placed in the basket by the buyer. These costs, which vary according to the price of the product, are justified by Back Market as necessary to “ strict quality control of vendors “. They would also make it possible to finance its customer service and its innovation laboratory. For the UFC and its president, Alain Bazot, it is ” one of the many breaches of consumer law of the firm which, however, is far from being the only one to charge such fees. Article L221-6 of the Consumer Code could in particular be invoked.
Another reason for disagreement between the two parties, and it is indeed much more debatable, concerns the discounts invoked by Back Market. The UFC points the finger at the “promotion” between a new product on one side and a reconditioned one on the other, since, for the association, these products are different.
The management of cookies is also denounced by the UFC-Que Choisir
The association’s complaint also includes the duration of the commercial guarantee offered by Back Market, which is 12 months. Nevertheless, it is necessary, once again, to distinguish the legal guarantee of conformity, of 24 months for refurbished products resold by a professional (and not disputed by Back Market), from the commercial guarantee, which is completely at the discretion of the firm. . Thus, for 12 months after the purchase, Back Market notably guarantees a response from the seller within 24 hours and a repair/replacement solution within 5 working days. The UFC criticizes the company for letting ” believe in a considerable advantage offered by the company » to the buyer, with a potential confusion between legal guarantee of conformity and commercial. However, the explanations provided by Back Market in its CVG are at least transparent on this subject.
Finally, the question of cookies must also be decided, because according to UFC-Que-Choisir, ” the association’s team of lawyers observed that advertisements flourished on Internet users’ screens, even when the latter had refused them “. The Paris court therefore has its work cut out for it.
On the same subject :
UFC-Que Choisir pinpoints the general conditions of sale of the SNCF site
Sources: UFC-Que-Choose , FranceInfo, Economy.gov, Consumer Code
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