Charlotte Barriquand, edited by Ophélie Artaud 06:31, July 21, 2022

As part of the bill on purchasing power, the government wants to find solutions to allow the French to easily terminate their contracts, but also wants to strengthen the fight against online scams.

A way of not putting more money on the table while helping consumers not to lose any.

The bill on purchasing power has been debated since Monday in the National Assembly and the government does not intend to put more money on the table.

To do this, he wants to offer the French legal means to avoid losing money in online scams or subscriptions.

40% of French people pay for subscriptions that they do not use

According to an Ipsos poll, 40% of French people continue to pay for subscriptions that they do not use.

It's hard to unsubscribe when you see how long the cancellation process can take.

And despite the loss of money, the consumer often ends up throwing in the towel.

The government then wants to offer a tool to the French.

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"We are going to offer a very simple button to terminate contracts taken out online and allow those who have subscribed to them in three clicks to be able to terminate just as easily", explains Olivia Grégoire, Minister Delegate for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Consumption. 

Toughen criminal penalties against scammers

For example, for a telephone subscription, the subscriber would no longer have to remember the anniversary date of the contract.

He wouldn't automatically be rehired unless he wanted to.

This project is still being discussed in Parliament and with the economic players concerned and the idea would be to get closer to the model of platforms like Netflix or Prime Video, on which there is already a special tab for very simply unsubscribing. 

The other way to prevent French people from losing money is to reduce online scams.

The government proposes to toughen the criminal penalties against scammers, who commit fraud and scams in an organized gang.

This affects everyone, especially seniors, who are less comfortable with this technology.

They would risk prison sentences increasing from 3 to 7 years.

For the moment, nothing has been voted on yet, but Bercy ensures that the judicial police, customs and the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and the Repression of Fraud will be particularly mobilized.