Fake reviews, extended delivery times, dangerous products… Be careful not to fall into the dropshipping trap if you order online, especially as Christmas approaches! According to the DGCCRF, more than half of these sites are in violation.
As the end-of-year holidays approach, more and more French people are turning to e-commerce sites to do their Christmas shopping and find original gifts to please their loved ones. The problem is that Internet users find themselves exposed to dropshipping scams, which explode during this period of high consumption! The concept of this business practice is problematic. An online entrepreneur creates a virtual store where he sells several products. When a customer makes a purchase on the site, the dropshipper forwards the order to the supplier, who actually has the desired product. The ingenuity of this indirect sales system lies in the fact that the supplier is responsible for preparing and shipping the order directly to the customer. Understand: the dropshipper simply acts as an intermediary between the buyer and supplier, without ever holding the product in question. And as he sets the price himself, he generally arranges for there to be a significant difference between the amount paid by the customer and that which he will pay to the supplier, in order to constitute his profit margin.
This dubious practice has obviously led to its share of abuses – in addition to excessive prices – such as the sale of counterfeits, products that do not conform to the description or which do not comply with safety standards, but also significant VAT invoicing, hidden costs and very long delivery times, products generally coming from Asia. The Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (the famous DGCCRF) looked into the question during an investigation carried out in 2022. As she announced in a statement, she looked at no less than 215 dropshipping websites, among which 116 turned out to be anomalies – or more than half! –, mainly due to non-deliveries of products and the impossibility of contacting the seller – with this type of site, there is no point in relying on after-sales service. A result which leads the DGCCRF to sound the alarm on this increasingly widespread practice.
Dropshipping: deceptive commercial practices
Dropshipping causes a significant number of complaints from consumers. Among the various problems noted during its investigation, the DGCCRF noted several breaches of the rules on consumer information and distance selling, such as the absence of mention or the presence of erroneous mentions of the identity of the seller, on the legal guarantee or on the right of withdrawal, as well as the absence of the mention of the obligation to pay or confirmation on a durable medium. It also points out the use of deceptive commercial practices, in particular on the availability and essential characteristics of the product (false label, false origin), on the identity and qualities of the professional or even the promotional nature of the price – to a large extent. reinforcement of crossed out prices, banners “less 40% on the entire site” and “exceptionally” free shipping costs. The writing of false reviews is also common on these sites, which do not hesitate to market dangerous or prohibited products, such as medicines or narcotics. Moreover, to avoid any “problem”, merchants do not hesitate to resort to unfair or illegal clauses, such as non-liability clauses in the event that the information provided on the site is inaccurate or incomplete.
Depending on their importance or seriousness, the breaches gave rise to 26 warnings, 67 injunctions, 22 criminal reports and 9 administrative reports. To restrict or prevent access to certain illicit sites, the administration has also carried out digital requisitions on 88 occasions – this power allows it to order the display of a warning message, the dereferencing or restriction of access to a site or a mobile application, as well as blocking a domain name. It intends to be very vigilant regarding the compliance of sites, because owners do not necessarily submit to it spontaneously. Since then, some of them have simply abandoned their activity. Other sellers complied to continue their activity, while others did not hesitate to close their website to create another with the same anomalies. Some procedures are still ongoing. In addition, the survey was renewed in 2023. Also, you must remain particularly vigilant when shopping online, not make impulsive purchases and pay close attention to certain signs that are not misleading (see our practical guide) .