UFC-Que Choisir criticizes the brand for making customers believe that they are getting a good deal by displaying the selling price of new products.
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The consumer association UFC-Que Choisir will file a complaint on Wednesday June 15 against the French start-up Back Market. The association accuses the company specializing in the resale of refurbished electronic objects “of numerous breaches of consumer law”, according to a press release published on Wednesday. The complaint for “misleading commercial practices” must be filed on Wednesday before the Paris court, explains UFC-Que Choisir, which also indicates that, “if the circular economy must be encouraged, it must still be respects the fundamental rights of consumers”.
The UFC-Que Choisir criticizes several practices at the French company. The latter is, for example, accused of making customers believe that they are getting a good deal by displaying the selling price of the refurbished product next to the price of the new product, when this is not sold on the site. . “It's not about promotions,” the association points out. It also denounces “service fees” systematically billed to consumers, which can reach 5.99 euros, and which only appear “at the payment stage”.
Finally, “Back Market offers consumers a 12-month contractual guarantee, suggesting a considerable advantage offered by the company”, when in reality “this guarantee is imposed by law, but above all lasts 24 months, including included for refurbished products”. The consumer defense association specifies that this is “the first complaint in Europe by a consumer association against the refurbished giant”, even if it has already been singled out by other associations, such as VZBV in Germany.
A start-up valued at more than 5 billion euros
And the president of UFC-Que Choisir, Alain Bazot, to explain that the association “wishes that the “reconditioned unicorn” continues to put “glitter in the lives of consumers, without its communication being only window dressing”.
The start-up Back Market, created in 2014, has established itself since its creation as the essential place for reconditioned electronic equipment, a booming sector, driven by ecological discourse which advocates a reduction in the environmental impact of electronic products. Last January, it announced that it had raised 450 million euros, a funding round which then propelled it, with a capitalization of 5.1 billion euros, to the podium of French unicorns. It then had more than 650 employees and planned to recruit 400 in 2022.
