The telephone operator, Free, was fined 2.2 million euros for “deceptive commercial practice”, indicated the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention.
While Free is just recovering from a major hack that disclosed the banking data of several thousand of its users, the company is facing a new sanction. The DGCCRF (Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control) has singled out the operator for “deceptive commercial practice”.
2.2 million euros. This is the amount of the fine that the DGCCRF sent to Free, who agreed to pay. The company was guilty of canceling phone orders placed by customers without providing a refund “within a reasonable time”indicates the DGCCRF. The facts occurred between August 2020 and January 2022.
We also learned that the operator carried out, via its general conditions, a compensation operation between the sums paid for the order of a mobile phone and the sums owed to the operator by consumers. Today, these notices no longer appear with the operator. Contacted by AFP, he did not wish to comment.
Free continues to be in the spotlight. We learned on Thursday, November 28 that the operator had been ordered by the Paris Court of Appeal to pay a sum of 15,000 euros in damages in a case of misleading advertising on a 5G mobile plan offer, as reported 01net.
