A well-known site offered contracts which, in reality, hid some defects.
This is the subject that worries the French the most. For two years, the soaring price of electricity has put many households in financial difficulty. The successive increases have led to higher bills, without it being really possible to do anything about it, except to reduce consumption. And even.
To try to limit the impact of the new prices on their budget, many households have entered into competition by changing supplier. But between all the offers, it’s difficult to find your way around. In order to see things more clearly, comparison sites have flourished on the internet. With a promise: to guide you to find the best electricity contract and save you money. Except that behind the fine words there was a completely different reality hidden by one of the best-known comparators on the market: Selectra. The company duped thousands of consumers for several years by putting forward offers that were far from being as attractive as presented.
Fraud Repression pinned the website, claiming that an energy supplier (its name was not disclosed) was always put forward with offers which, in reality, did not exist and, above all, which the price per kWh was higher than the regulated rate. A deception – not to say a scam – which was able to deceive many consumers, lured by offers which would ultimately make them spend more money.
Furthermore, the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF) revealed that certain offers put forward by Selectra were because the company had a financial advantage in bringing certain suppliers to the fore. electricity compared to others. According to the investigation, these deceptions took place between 2020 and 2022, a period when energy prices began to slowly increase. No figures on the number of customers potentially fooled have been released.
If the work does not relate to the offers proposed since 2023, while the electricity price has increased by 40%, doubts about the reliability of the contracts put forward seem to be in order, especially since “we must be wary of comparators, suppliers who are not expensive, who are at the top of the comparisons, are often those who are the most pursued by the DGCCRF and the CLCV”, affirmed the CLCV association (Consumption, housing and living environment) at the Parisian. For its part, Selectra, which was fined 400,000 euros, claims to have put in place new rules for controlling the offers offered. For a comparator, this seems to be the least we can do…