The charges were clearly too serious to hope to emerge unscathed from a trial. Selectra, the leader in online comparison of electricity and gas prices, agreed to pay a fine of 400,000 euros to spare itself a criminal trial. The French company was suspected of deceptive commercial practices.
After two years of investigation, between 2020 and 2022, agents of the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) became certain that Selectra, which employs 2,200 people in seventeen countries, had multiplied its deceptions towards consumers.
Among the frauds, the consumer police discovered that it was highlighting on its French sites the prices of a particular energy supplier, whose name was not filtered. These offers were presented with discounts which did not exist, statements which falsely suggested that they were financially very attractive and elements of language which concealed the fact that the price of the kWh offered by this energy supplier was actually higher than the regulated rate.
Disguised commercial intentions
According to the DGCCRF, Selectra also hid “its commercial intentions in order to obtain the insertion of commercial links on the websites of public bodies whose purpose was to inform consumers”. In general, for the agents of the fraud repression “this company has maintained the confusion, through the Internet sites that it operates, between itself and the historical energy suppliers, the network managers, but also the national energy mediator”.
Particularly serious abuses for a company whose business is based on the veracity and reliability of its content. “The non-compliances held against Selectra relate to errors, late updates, or risks of confusion present on our pages before November 2021, as well as to individual excesses of communications officers, responsible for the exchange and acquisition of links pointing to our websites,” the company defends in writing.
As required by Fraud Control, Selectra ensures that corrective measures have been taken. Thus, the company writes that it has put in place “a control of the emails of communications managers in order to avoid any individual deviation”. It also indicates that it has updated the rules for monetizing its content. Internal controls of these rules will also be carried out. Finally, Selectra claims to be developing, in particular via artificial intelligence, a technology to automatically update energy prices.
If Selectra, created in 2007, specializes in comparing electricity and gas prices, it has since diversified by also offering price comparisons on the internet and telephone markets, insurance and also banking offers. In 2023, the group achieved 96 million euros in turnover worldwide.
First conviction for a comparator
In this case, if the comparator had refused the transactional fine, a criminal trial would have been organized. The company would then have been liable to a fine of up to 10% of its annual turnover, generally that made in France. Above all, the company’s managers were liable to three years in prison and a fine of 300,000 euros.
“This transactional fine does not prevent injured consumers from turning against Selectra,” warns François Carlier, the general delegate of the CLCV association (Consumption, housing and living environment). It is possible to consider, depending on the case, that there has been consumer harm. And associations like ours are ready to consider these issues. Group action may be a solution. »
This is the first time that an energy price comparator has been condemned. A market particularly monitored by the DGCCRF and consumer associations. “It’s a fairly toxic sector,” believes François Carlier. The suppliers do not really differentiate themselves. Many are tempted to cross the red line. And inevitably, comparators may be led to reproduce these bad practices. »
Especially since suppliers pay commissions to comparison sites to appear on these sites. “Indeed,” says François Carlier. “But the information must be fair. Generally speaking, you have to be wary of comparison sites. Suppliers who are not expensive, who are at the top of the comparisons, are often those who are most pursued by the DGCCRF and the CLCV.”