Indexia Group before the courts for misleading commercial practices

The trial of six companies from the Indexia group opened in Paris on Monday. They are accused of misleading commercial practices in insurance contracts for telephones and computers.

The trial that is shaking up the insurance world. The trial of six companies in the Indexia group, tried for misleading commercial practices concerning requests for cancellation and reimbursement of insurance contracts for telephones and computers, opened Monday in Paris. In the courtroom, around forty lawyers were crowded on the side of the civil parties, reports AFP, due to lack of space in the packed room. On the defense side, around ten lawyers accompanied the head of the Indexia group, Sadri Fegaier, who was present at the hearing.

Six of the businessman’s companies – SARL SFK Group, SFAM Celside Insurance, Foriou, Cyrana, Hubside and Serena – as well as himself, are on trial until October 2 before the Paris Criminal Court.

They are accused of having had hundreds of consumers take out insurance contracts for their multimedia devices and of having developed a complex procedure aimed at discouraging them from their requests for cancellation or reimbursement, between 2014 and 2022. They are also being prosecuted for opposition as an agent authorized to note violations and breaches of the consumer code, committed since 2018.

Increase in levies

The Indexia group is particularly known for selling so-called affinity insurance in Fnac-Darty stores between 2017 and 2019, but also in its own Hubside Store boutiques. Consumers were offered, at the time of their purchase, insurance for around fifteen euros per month. Years later, hundreds of them have seen the deductions multiply, reaching up to tens of thousands of euros in total, without having signed an amendment or having never even signed an insurance contract.

After an initial charge of 35 euros, “gradually, they added another 35 euros and another 35 euros,” recalls Hans, a member of the civil parties, on BFMTV. “When we did the summary, we saw that they had taken 20,000 euros,” he assures. In the absence of a response from the companies concerned, abused customers alerted the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir and forwarded reports to the fraud squad, which opened an investigation in 2018.

This investigation revealed “practices consisting of falsely making consumers who wish to stop direct debits, cancel their subscriptions and be reimbursed for the amounts withdrawn after terminating their contract believe that their requests were taken into account, or even effective”, according to the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF). The investigation ended in 2019 with a criminal transaction of 10 million euros.

“Prejudice” for the profession

However, the complaints continued, with many consumers reporting requests for termination and reimbursement that were never implemented. More than 1,600 people have already filed civil suits.

These people “called customer service and asked for the contract to be terminated, and of course for the sums that had been unduly deducted to be reimbursed” and “customer service told them ‘yes, we have taken your termination request into account, yes, we have taken your reimbursement request into account, it will happen in a few days’, except that the customers were never reimbursed”, explains Rachel Nakache, lawyer for the civil parties, on BFMTV.

The case is being taken seriously in the insurance world. The CFDT, for example, has also filed a civil suit, due to “damage to the image of the profession”. The employees of the Indexia group “have lost their jobs” and “have the greatest difficulty finding work again”, explains Thomas Hollande, lawyer for the CFDT banking and insurance federation, on BFM Business.

“When they go to a job interview, they are asked who their previous employer was” and they “end up finding themselves associated with these offences,” he says.