The consumer association files a complaint before the Paris judicial court against the site of reconditioned electronic products.
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A used MacBook Air computer at 401 euros, compared to 1,099 euros new. A Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone at 280 euros against 689 euros… For the consumer who strolls on Back Market, the first French sales site for reconditioned electronic products is tempting. But for the UFC-Que Choisir, it is annoying and above all unfair. “When you buy a used car, does the seller remind you of its new price? No, because the two products are not comparable. However, that’s what Back Market does,” explains Raphaël Bartlomé, Responsible for the legal service of the UFC-Que Choisir, for whom “it is time to say stop”.
After several months of dialogue and despite some improvements, the consumer association has decided to seize justice to put an end to these promotions that are not. A complaint was to be filed Wednesday June 15 against the site, before the Paris court, for misleading commercial practices.
Back Market price comparisons are not the only ones in the sights of the association. The UFC-Que Choisir also criticizes in marketplace its service costs of 4.99 euros per purchase, which do not appear in the sale price initially displayed, but only when the consumer validates his basket.
Back Market, who had not reacted, Wednesday morning, at the announcement of the complaint, explains on his site that “these service costs [] allow him to invest in many quality approaches”, Like “strict quality of quality of sellers” present in its market place. But, for Mr. Bartlomé, these service costs are “a kind of complementary margin”, Back Market already taking a 10 % commission from sales by sellers who use its market place.
“It feels like going back years”
“In 2022, for a company the size and value of Back Market, it should be simple to display, from the start, the final price of the product. We feel like going back years back , when we condemned the hidden costs of plane tickets or tour operators, “regrets the head of the legal service of the UFC-Que Choisir. VZBV, a German consumer association, conducts the same action across the Rhine against the practices of the German site of Back Market, without having however crossed the judicial barrier.
This is the first time that the UFC-Que Choisir has aims to have a site for the sale of so-called “reconditioned” electronic products. But the sector already suffered, in March, the admonitions of the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and the Repression of Frauds (DGCCRF).
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