SFAM, a subsidiary of Indexia, is placed in compulsory liquidation. The fall of this structure is likely to have repercussions on the rest of the group, accused for years of engaging in illicit commercial practices.
Storm warning for SFAM (Société Française d’Assurance Mobile). The subsidiary of the Indexia group has just been placed in compulsory liquidation by the Paris commercial court on April 24, 2024. Sued by Urssaf Rhône-Alpes, which claimed 11.76 million euros in unpaid debts, it failed to obtain a deadline to repay his debts.
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According to France Blue, the court's decision – which can be appealed within the next ten days – puts 300 SFAM employees on the shelf. In recent times, the company was already facing another problem: its inability to pay salaries to certain current and former employees in recent weeks, notes The gallery.
The scope of the judgment is uncertain at this stage: a member of the social and economic committee indicated that this judicial liquidation had an immediate effect on the SFAM staff in Romans-sur-Isère. Other subsidiaries do not currently seem directly threatened: SFAM in Roanne is still on track.
The considerable unpaid debts of SFAM, combined with the problems of unpaid or late salaries, risk having wider repercussions on the Indexia group. This structure controls several other brands, one of the best known of which is Hubside Store (there are also the Celside, Cyrana, Foriou and Serena brands).
Will SFAM bring other Indexia subsidiaries down with it?
These shops populate the shopping malls and shopping streets. Hubside Store, which debuted in 2020, specializes in selling new and refurbished electronic products. There are around thirty points of sale in France, and 130 throughout Europe, according to figures from Indexia.
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In detail, Hubside Store does not just offer equipment. It also sells contracts and subscriptions. However, many customers have come forward in recent years, accusing the chain of abusive and excessive deductions – in some cases, the amounts involved reach tens of thousands of euros.
The numerous sanctions that have taken place in recent years attest to the very controversial practices of the SFAM, and its sister companies, like that of the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention. In 2021, the DGCCRF imposed a fine of 10 million euros on SFAM, reported Rue89.
More recently, the Prudential Control and Resolution Authority (ACPR) took action against the SFAM a precautionary measure temporary ban on the distribution of any insurance contract. That was in April 2023. There were also a slew of court cases — there were was counted 53 from 2023 to 2024.
On the side of the National Commission for Information Technology and Liberties (Cnil), these are specifically the subsidiaries Foriou And Hubside Store who were caught for aggressive commercial prospecting, without having taken the trouble to verify the consent of the people. The sanctions amounted to 310,000 and 525,000 euros respectively.
The victims of this mechanism number in the thousands and dozens of damaged customers were still demonstrating in front of the headquarters of the SFAM in Romans-sur-Isère, mid-April. The fall of the broker should, however, thwart the hopes of individuals wishing to recover sums unduly taken, including after the termination of a contract.
Next judicial chapter in September
The whole question is to know to what extent the sinking of the SFAM will rock the rest of the structure put in place by Indexia. It remains to be seen whether some of its subsidiaries will end up disappearing, swept away in the fall of SFAM, which managed these contracts – optional insurance guarantees for various risks (breakage, theft, breakdown, etc.).
The next chapter of this story must be written in September 2024. On deceptive commercial practices, and particularly deductions, the DGCCRF transmitted to the judicial authority, in April 2022, the results of its investigations into Indexia companies. The UFC-Que Choisir, for its part, has aggregated more than 400 complainants constituted as a civil party.
The SFAM is a priori out of the race to reimburse undue deductions, due to its liquidation, it is therefore perhaps at another level that this will play out – by putting in the balance the responsibility of the parent company. The storm that swept away the SFAM could then become a cataclysm for the rest of the structure.