The Indexia group will be judged at the end of May and the beginning of June in Paris for deceptive commercial practices, after overbilling for insurance for telephones and computers, a judicial source said on Monday, confirming information from France Bleu Drôme Ardèche. The trial will take place on May 27, 28, 29 and June 4 and 5, 2024, this source said. The leader of the Indexia group (now renamed Hubside) and seven legal entities will be tried for deceptive commercial practices and obstruction of control.
Through several companies, such as SFAM, the Indexia group marketed, among other things, services to insure telephones and computers. After receiving hundreds of customer reports, fraud enforcement launched an investigation. This investigation revealed “practices consisting in misleading consumers wishing to stop direct debits, terminate their subscriptions and be reimbursed for the sums deducted after termination of their contract that their requests were taken into account, or even effective”, according to the management. General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF).
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The conclusions of the investigations were transmitted to the Paris prosecutor’s office, which summoned the defendants to appear in court. For this trial, 533 victims are registered, said the judicial source. “We are confident about the outcome of the ongoing procedures. The practices reproached to Hubside (the new name of the group, editor’s note) are largely unfounded, “said the group on Monday in a statement sent to AFP. “The Indexia group has turned the page on insurance to devote itself to the distribution of new and refurbished multimedia products and the design of new services since the spring of 2023”, according to the same source.
In April, the French insurance police (ACPR) issued against the company SFAM “a precautionary measure temporarily banning the distribution of any insurance contract”. At the beginning of the same month, the group had suspended the signing of new insurance contracts. In mid-March, dozens of consumers sued three companies belonging to the Indexia group. The procedure continues.
“The scope of this criminal trial seems relatively limited to me,” reacted Me Emma Leoty, who is leading this civil action. “It would concern the period March 2014-July 2020 for consumers who terminated their contract and who were deducted despite everything. I will constitute my customers concerned as civil parties, ”she added. A first administrative investigation targeted the SFAM for the same suspicions in 2018: the company had agreed in 2019 to pay a fine of 10 million euros. However, this fine did not put an end to customer alerts for overcharging.