Paris (AFP)

The UFC-Que Choisir has decided to file a complaint against the Leetchi online kitty for numerous delays in payment of the funds collected, she announced in a statement on Friday.

"Leetchi boasts of guaranteeing a fast and efficient service in order to collect money from different people, affirming on several occasions that the payment of the jackpots to the beneficiary is made within 48 hours", indicated the association. of consumers.

But "thousands of consumers" have actually suffered "delays in releasing funds of several months".

Admittedly, "an extended payment period may exceptionally occur within the framework of a reinforced examination of the file in the case of the fight against fraud, provided for by the regulations, but the exception is becoming the principle", regrets association.

The UFC-Que Choisir indicates having sent unsuccessful formal notices to Leetchi, and made "fruitless attempts at dialogue".

She ended up deciding to "file a complaint for deceptive commercial practices today with the Public Prosecutor of Paris".

In a press release published Friday evening, Leetchi said that "between October 1 and November 30, for 90% of the fundraisers, the average time for processing expense requests is 7 hours, allowing funds to be received within 48 hours . For only 3% of the jackpots, the average spending time is more than 10 days ".

"This period is necessary to allow the Compliance and Fraud department of Leetchi to ensure the legality of the solidarity jackpots and the transfer of funds to the legitimate beneficiary of a fundraising," said the company.

It indicates that its service "uses for this automatic and manual control procedures, applied to be in accordance with the regulations in force and the CGU (general conditions of use, Editor's note) of the platform. According to the jackpots, Leetchi can be required to request different types of supporting documents to verify the correct destination of the funds, ”she says.

Leetchi "also recalls that he makes no use of the funds collected from the jackpots. As an intermediary, his role is to act as a trusted third party and to ensure that the funds collected are paid back to the legitimate beneficiary and for the object determined by the creator of the pot ", according to its press release.

Created in 2009, Leetchi is a French company, a subsidiary of Crédit Mutuel Arkea.

It claims to be the European leader in the online pot with 12 million users.

The UFC-Que Choisir indicated that consumers who allegedly suffered late payments from Leetchi were invited to withdraw a model claim on its site.

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