Accused of offering false discounts, Conforama returns to court

The case of false promotions at Conforama Switzerland is going back to court. After the Lausanne District Court in June 2023, it is the Vaud Cantonal Court that will examine the practices of the discounter specializing in household equipment on Wednesday afternoon, on appeal.

The company based in Ecublens (VD), which has around fifteen subsidiaries in Switzerland, is accused of having displayed false “crossed-out prices” during its promotions in stores, in catalogues and online. These prices were supposed to show the price of an item before the discount. But in reality, they were never used. False comparisons with the competition were also used. It was the Fédération romande des consommateurs (FRC) which, following a vast investigation, denounced this practice and filed a complaint in April 2019.

At first instance, the Lausanne court did not find any intentional action against Conforama, considering that it was a case of repeated negligence. The company was fined 5,000 francs, while the Public Prosecutor had requested a fine of 1.5 million francs.

The Court, however, followed the prosecutor in awarding a compensatory claim of 1.5 million francs for the damage suffered. The judges thus considered that these false actions, even intentional, had generated a substantial increase in the company’s turnover.

This verdict did not satisfy anyone and all parties appealed. Conforama claims that the amount of the compensatory claim is “economically and legally incomprehensible”. For its part, the FRC maintains that Conforama’s deception was “deliberate” and that it should be fined 1.5 million francs.

Cheating or “bugs”?

During the trial at first instance, both the Public Prosecutor and the FRC had insisted on Conforama’s “systematic cheating” on “all or almost all” of its promotions, and this for several years. The discounter had been criticized for its “lies” and its “fallacious comparisons”, harming both the consumer and the competition.

For their part, the representative of Conforama Switzerland and the group’s lawyers had denounced the “simplistic approach” of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. They had assured that there had never been a desire to deceive buyers. According to them, if certain isolated errors could have occurred in the past, they could be explained by various “bugs” and an outdated computer system.

ATS

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