Free was convicted this Thursday, November 28 by the Paris Court of Appeal for deceptive commercial practices. The case concerns its offer on 5G technology and Familles Rurales is at the origin. The company is ordered to pay 15,000 euros in damages to the association. Let’s take stock.
The origin of the affair
It all started in 2021, when this collective decided to sue Free over an advertisement broadcast the same year. Familles Rurales considered that Xavier Niel’s company used misleading statements about the flow rate and its coverage of the territory.
In March 2022, the Paris judicial court ruled in favor of Free. The court of appeal, for its part, found that Free had indeed made misleading allegations. As stated BFMit seems that the frequency bands used by the company to deploy 5G in France offer a more limited speed than the frequency normally offered by this technology.
Quoted by our colleagues, French justice considers that this promise from Free to offer “speed up to three times faster than 4G” while covering 40% of the French population “at no extra cost” to 5G was misleading.
She adds that “access to 5G features is linked to the acquisition of a new compatible mobile device”. Therefore, the “subscription is necessarily subject to an additional cost”.
Free did not wish to comment on this decision. Rural families say they are studying the idea of obtaining compensation for “consumers who had to equip themselves with expensive telephones to benefit from unduly advertised speeds”. It must be said that the association demanded 1.3 million euros in damages, but it only obtained 15,000, as we indicated above.
Free’s rivals sued for deceptive practices
As a reminder, some Free competitors have already been prosecuted for this type of charge. For example, in December 2020, the national association of consumers and users (CLCV) took SFR and Orange to court. The cause is misleading commercial practices on their new 5G packages. For more information, do not hesitate to consult our previous article here.
What to remember:
- Free has just been condemned by the Paris Court of Appeal for misleading advertising
- The case dates from 2021 and concerns the deployment of 5G
- Other Free competitors have been sued for reasons linked to this technology
