Online sales exploded in 2020, helped by the two lockdowns and the closure of shops and restaurants.
But this explosion was accompanied by a sharp increase in complaints and reports, notes the DGCCRF, the repression of fraud.
This is one of the effects of the health crisis.
With the closure of stores and restaurants, the various lockdowns have caused e-commerce to explode.
In 2020, online sales increased by more than 8%.
But this increase is automatically accompanied by an increase in disputes, specialists in the sector noting the appearance of new forms of scams.
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Raphael Bartlomé is categorical, he has never seen that.
He, who heads the legal department of the UFC-Que Choisir consumer association, can even say what the most frequent disputes are.
"These are reports mainly on delivery issues: delivery defects, deliveries of damaged objects or phantom deliveries, that is to say those that never took place."
New scams
This increase in complaints and reports in the online commerce sector is confirmed by the DGCCRF, the repression of fraud.
And the development of e-commerce has also inspired new scams like the one suffered by Philippe.
Last year, after buying toothbrushes on a famous website, he received an SMS inviting him to pay the shipping costs and thus entered his credit card codes.
A decision that could have cost him dearly.
"About a month later, while checking my accounts, I realized that I had a withdrawal of 95 euros on my account which did not correspond to anything", he says.
This retiree, a novice in the field, therefore had to oppose and request a refund from his bank.
The latter accepted but refused to investigate further "for such a small sum".