2023-06-21 08:58:08
It is a hard-hitting report against insurers that the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) has just released, reveals Le Figaro. After studying the practices of 147 insurers, whether mutuals, insurance companies, brokers or bank subsidiaries, it appears that more than a third of them (34%) would have recourse to non-compliant, qualified as “offences”. How did fraud enforcement identify all of these frauds between 2021 and 2022? Thanks to the reports or complaints of which they have been the subject.
This figure is all the higher as in some cases, the practices are illegal, specifies the DGCCRF. Phenomenon controlled perhaps more than the others: the cold calling, now regulated. If it is not prohibited, it is still problematic, notes the repression of fraud in its study, since “some 38% of the establishments checked do not respect consumer rights”. And almost 80 of them were the subject of complaints in 2020. In addition, despite the ban on canvassing people registered on the Bloctel platform, a good number of insurers continue to do so.
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Contracts signed illegally
Another area of study: the insurance contracts and their termination, now facilitated in order to promote competition. The new regulations mean that each customer can terminate the contract free of charge after a year. But in reality, as noted by the DGCCRF, some insurers, brokers or mutuals do not reimburse the costs advanced by their customers. More than half of the establishments inspected are in this case. Another illicit practice: the fact that these insurance companies omit (voluntarily or not) to inform their customers.
The DGCCRF is starting to crack down since it has issued three warnings as well as two injunctions to stop this kind of practice. As for two other insurers, criminal proceedings have been opened. The repression of fraud finds once again that the elderly are more targeted by these practices. She points the finger at the “misleading speeches” of brokers who maintain “confusion” with the insured’s mutual insurance company by offering him, for example, an “amendment” to an existing contract when he is actually signing a new one, with the consequences that this entails. Not to mention the contracts signed “fraudulently” following a phone call. Again against the rules.
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In all, the DGCCRF issued 21 warnings, four injunctions and two others received a report asking them to stop this type of practice. Finally, “anomalies” were noted on the subject of legal protection insurance in 20% of the establishments inspected. The repression of fraud noted “abusive” clauses, and “incomplete, misleading or missing” obligations. Proof that the French are beginning to care about these practices, reports are on the rise on the platform SignalConso.
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