Fnac Darty confirmed this Thursday legal proceedings against its former partner, Sfam (Indexia), which sold insurance for telephones and multimedia products between 2017 and 2019 in the group’s stores and which is facing criminal charges for deceptive commercial practices. Many Fnac Darty customers complain of having been unduly taken by Indexia subsidiaries (Foriou, Serena, Hubside) of sums which have multiplied even though they had not subscribed to any changes to their contract.
“Customers who had this type of contract abusively, we helped them,” said Enrique Martinez, general manager of Fnac Darty, confirming information from the media L’Informé. “After numerous alerts and reminders addressed to the Indexia group, the company Fnac Darty Participations et Services took the company Sfam before the Paris commercial court in January 2023 in order to force it to process customer complaints, by means of a penalty,” specified the Fnac Darty group.
A company in debt
The court has several times ordered Sfam to communicate documents, in particular “summary tables of the progress of the processing of customer complaints”, according to a February decision. “The procedure is still in progress,” added Fnac Darty. In 2018, the boss of Indexia, Sadri Fegaier, discreetly purchased 11.35% of Fnac Darty for 335 million euros. In debt, his group had to sell its shares last October which served as guarantee for a loan.
The end of the Fnac/Sfam partnership came after the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) opened an investigation in 2018, which resulted in a criminal settlement of 10 million euros. . A second investigation was opened immediately. This time Indexia will be tried at the end of September for deceptive commercial practices before the Paris Criminal Court.
In liquidation
Indexia and Fnac Darty have also been sued in civil proceedings by around 400 consumers. The first hearing will take place on September 12 in Paris, according to their lawyer, Emma Leoty, who hopes to obtain reimbursement from her clients. The latter obtained at the beginning of April the precautionary seizure of around 45,000 euros on the Sfam accounts even though it had requested the seizure of 2.9 million euros. Most of the company’s accounts were already subject to seizure.
Sfam has been placed in liquidation by Urssaf, one of its creditors, which is demanding 11.76 million from it. The case was adjourned until April 24. Tensions are numerous at Indexia, accused by employees, some of whom are on strike, of not having paid salaries or bonuses and by former clients, who claim to have been deducted again at the beginning of 2024 even though they had canceled their contract several months or years ago.