After attacking Vinted or Nintendo, UFC-Que Choisir announced on June 15 that it was filing a complaint against Back Market, one of the giants in the reconditioning of electrical and electronic devices, before the Paris Court of Justice. According to the consumer association, the e-commerce platform for refurbished products, which became a unicorn in May 2021, would use deceptive commercial practices.
UFC-Que Choisir considers that the promotions displayed by Back Market are not
According to the president of UFC-Que Choisir, the association hopes that the unicorn of refurbished products will continue to put sparkles in the lives of consumers, without its communication being just window dressing “. Indeed, it considers that Back Market’s communication “ hides numerous breaches of consumer law “. The Union Fédérale des Consommateurs – Que Choisir relies on several arguments to prove these potential misleading commercial practices.
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First of all, the firm is accused of displaying prices in promotions (by offering a crossed out price and a reduced price, the one that the consumer will pay to acquire the product) when it is not really a question of promotions. UFC-Que Choisir affirms that by doing this, Back Market is comparing two products that are actually different: the crossed out price being that of a new product, which has not come to the refurbishment site, and the reduced price, that of the said refurbished product. .
It also specifies that the reduced price, the one that the customer is supposed to pay, is not the final price. Indeed, Back Market adds after validation of the basket, “service fees” that it systematically invoices to consumers (between 3.99 and 5.99 euros).
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When a customer places an order, Back Market offers consumers a twelve-month warranty. UFC-Que Choisir returns to this guarantee proposal. She considers that the reconditioning giant makes the customer believe that the warranty included is an advantage offered by the company, whereas the law requires the implementation of a free warranty for a period of 24 months. The association adds that even if the site is a marketplace, the information displayed must be fair but above all complete “.
Finally, UFC-Que Choisir affirms that the Back Market site does not respect the regulations concerning cookies, offering them the possibility as soon as they arrive on a website to accept or refuse cookies. The purpose of this measure is to protect Internet users who do not want their personal data to be collected and used without their knowledge.
A team of lawyers affiliated with the association reportedly found that tracking cookies were placed even though the Internet user refused them. If this practice turns out to be real, Back Market could see other organizations such as the National Commission for Information and Liberties (CNIL) intervene to put an end to this type of practice.