The DGCCRF struck hard: after having identified “abusive practices” and a “lack of transparency” in nearly a third of insurers, brokers and other mutual insurance companies inspected, the fraud prevention service issued nearly 50 warnings, injunctions and minutes. The professional federation of the sector, France insurers, did not wish to comment on the subject. The DGCCRF points in particular to abusive practices in cold calling in more than a third (38%) of the establishments inspected.
Of the 147 establishments screened between January 2021 and April 2022, “nearly a third (…) did not comply with the regulations relating to good consumer information or the fairness of commercial practices in this sector”, indicates Wednesday in a communicated the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF).
Unscrupulous brokers
Its services have, for example, observed “that the very elderly, most of whom are already covered by complementary health insurance, are the subject of canvassing by unscrupulous brokers who do not reveal their real identity and hold deceivers deliberately maintaining confusion, for example with the insured’s mutual insurance company”. Electronic signatures are also torn from customers after a single phone call, an illegal practice. These facts gave rise to 21 warnings, 4 injunctions, 5 criminal reports and 2 administrative reports, specifies the DGCCRF.
In terms of legal protection insurance contracts, the professionals inspected were deemed to be “little transparent”, particularly in terms of information on the guarantees taken out, the total amount of the premium, the obligations of the insured or the terms of termination. A fifth of the establishments checked had an “anomaly” on this subject, enough to issue five warnings and five injunctions to the professionals concerned. In addition, nearly half of the insurance companies and brokers inspected “did not reimburse certain costs upon early termination of the contract”, despite their obligation to the customer, adds the DGCCRF, which proceeded for this reason to three warnings, two injunctions and two penal reports.
Sometimes considered the bad student of the profession, the Indexia group (Hubside, Foriou, Celside) even received at the end of April “a precautionary measure temporarily prohibiting the distribution of any insurance contract” from the insurance policeman, the Prudential Supervisory and Resolution Authority (ACPR). The latter also attacked the high fees that insurers apply to life insurance contracts, going so far as to burden the return on their client’s savings, before a commitment was made by the profession in recent years. weeks.