Free was condemned by the Paris Court of Appeal for its advertising for 5G during its launch. The court considered that the group had deceived its customers regarding coverage, debits and the absence of additional costs.
Free gets his knuckles slapped by the courts! It all starts at the end of 2020, when the operator launches its first 5G offers. At the time, it promised “ultra-fast” speeds, the widest national coverage – 40% of the French population – and above all, a “no extra cost” offer. Promises which were quickly contested by Familles Rurales, which then initiated legal action against Free in 2021, accusing it of having used misleading claims about its flow rate and its coverage of the territory.
In March 2022, the Paris judicial court ruled in favor of Free. The association then appealed and, ultimately, the court of appeal found that Free had indeed made misleading allegations about its 5G network. It therefore sanctions the operator with a judgment handed down on November 22, as the association announced in his press release.
5G Free: misleading speed and territorial coverage
The Court identified several misleading elements in Free Mobile’s communication. First, the claim that the network would be “three times faster than 4G” was found to be erroneous, as was the alleged coverage of “40% of the population” and the network mapping presented on the operator’s website. Indeed, in France, 5G uses three different frequency bands (700 MHz, 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz), each having its own characteristics in terms of penetration into buildings, speed and coverage. However, at the time, Free used certain frequency bands for 5G which offered a more limited speed.
This is the problem with the famous “fake” 5G, which recycles the 700 MHz frequency band used by 4G, while the “real” 5G passes through the 3.5 GHz network. In short, the operator mainly relied on the 700 MHz band to cover the territory very quickly, with speeds which were therefore incomparable with ‘real’ 5G. And, of course, customers were not informed of this slight detail… Today, this problem is fortunately no longer relevant.
5G Free: carefully concealed additional costs
Another element on which Free had focused its communication and which posed a problem: the promise of an offer “at no extra cost”. If the amount of the 5G package when it was released was indeed the same as that of the 4G subscription, there was a small subtlety. Indeed, access to a 5G network requires a compatible terminal. However, if even most entry-level smartphones offer this option today, this was not the case at the time, when you had to equip yourself with the most expensive devices on the market to take advantage of it. The transition to 5G therefore technically generated additional expenses. A slight detail that Free was careful not to mention…
The sentence by the Paris Court of Appeal amounts to 15,000 euros for harm to the collective interest of consumers. A sum much lower than what the association requested, which had estimated this damage at more than 1.3 million euros. But the matter is far from over, because this decision can still be the subject of a cassation appeal. In addition, Familles Rurales announced that it was considering a class action to obtain compensation for customers forced to purchase expensive 5G terminals.