Free was convicted on appeal this Thursday, November 28 for “deceptive commercial practices” by the Paris Court of Appeal. This decision concerns an advertisement extolling the merits of the 5G network deployed by the operator.
Small victory for the Rural Families association. The organization specializing in consumer defense welcomed Thursday the conviction of Free by the Paris Court of Appeal for deceptive commercial practices. Conviction which targeted an offer concerning the use of 5G technology by the operator.
In detail, the court recognized that Free's promise to offer “speed up to three times faster than 5G” and to cover 40% of the French population was misleading. The announcement of “no extra cost” access to the network was also criticized by the court.
Free sentenced to 15,000 euros in damages
More precisely, this decision is based in particular on the use of certain frequency bands used by Free to deploy 5G in the territory. Resorts which offer a more limited throughput than the frequency band conventionally used for this technology.
The court thus underlined that, if the price of the 5G mobile plan is not higher than that of a 4G plan, “access to 5G features is linked to the acquisition of a new compatible mobile device. ”, and that consequently “its subscription is necessarily subject to an additional cost”. She ordered Free to pay 15,000 euros in damages to Familles Rurales, an amount well below the request of the association which had estimated these damages at more than 1.3 million euros.
Action underway to compensate consumers
In a press release, the association nevertheless clarified that a group action was “under study” in order to obtain compensation for “consumers who had to equip themselves with expensive telephones to benefit from unduly advertised speeds”.
As a reminder, the association had initiated legal action against the operator in 2021 regarding an advertisement made the same year for a 5G mobile plan offer, accusing it of having used misleading statements about its speed and its coverage of the territory. And this, after a first decision rendered in March 2022 by the Paris judicial court, which ruled in favor of Free. Contacted by AFP, Free did not wish to comment.
