Published
Update
Video length: 75 min
Further investigation
Since the opening to competition, around thirty alternative suppliers have offered electricity contracts. Ultra-offensive salespeople, often incomprehensible contract terms, biased price comparators… Investigation into a sector sometimes out of control, in partnership with Revue21.fr.
The scene is shocking: by falsely posing as a Gaz de France employee, an unscrupulous salesman invites himself to the home of an elderly hearing-impaired person to sell him, with false promises of frozen prices, a new contract for supply of electricity from a private operator.
In a few minutes and by assailing him with false arguments, the salesperson made him sign an offer which the vulnerable user clearly understood nothing about. Here is one example among many of the, to say the least, questionable methods revealed during our investigation into the electricity market.
Distraught, and sometimes abused, consumers
When it comes to choosing a supplier, most French people today are completely helpless, to the point of sometimes being misled. How to reduce your bill? What is the cheapest offer? Answering these questions is often a headache.
Since the opening to competition, around thirty alternative suppliers have offered electricity contracts. From ultra-offensive direct sellers to often incomprehensible contracts, including certain biased price comparison sites, “Further investigation” into a sector that is sometimes out of control. In particular, we discover how suppliers pay commissions to online comparison sites to be recommended as a priority, even if they are not the most economical.
An energy market that sometimes disrupts
In partnership with Revue21.fr, which published its investigation on March 7, the magazine’s teams also met a former senior executive of a private supplier who agreed to tell for the first time the practices of his company to maximize its profits at the expense of of consumers: spectacular increase in prices, frenzied speculation and, ultimately, the jackpot for this operator who, in the meantime, has gotten rid of half of its customers! An incredible scenario which is today the subject of an investigation by the energy police. “Additional investigation” into an energy market which sometimes disrupts and puts the French under tension!
An investigation by Hugo Puffeney and Juliette Jonas in partnership with Revue21.fr.
In the red armchairs: Olivier Challan Belval, national energy mediator.
The editorial staff of “Complément d’investigation” invites you to comment on the program on Facebook or on Twitter with the hashtag #ComplementDenquete.
> Replays of France Télévisions news magazines are available on the Franceinfo website and its mobile application (iOS & Android), “Magazines” section.
Among our sources
– CRE reports and documents, in particular market observatories, decisions relating to TRVE and changes in prices, and report on market operation 2020-2022.
– Reports from the energy mediator 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.
– The CLCV press kit.
– The mission of the Senate on the conditions for the attribution of Arenh and the reports of the commission of the National Assembly aimed at establishing the reasons for the loss of sovereignty and energy independence from France.
– The opinion of the Competition Authority on the functioning of the electricity market and the public report of the Council of State (see also this one on the so-called “ARENH rationing” system).
Non-exhaustive list.