Consumer Gold Cactus 2024, the black palm awarded by consumers

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Published by Marta Strinati on 16 January 2025

Consumer Gold Cactus 2024

The 'reverse' award Consumer Gold Cactus 2024, now in its eighth year, is awarded to nine companies from various business sectors. All of which have distinguished themselves for their incorrect behavior towards consumers.

In addition to the three worst operators who end up on the podium, other cases of failed and disrespectful conduct towards the basic rights of consumers are in fact reported.

1) Temu, convenience with some problems

In the first place in the 2024 ranking there is Temu, the platform of 'made in China' products sold at incredibly low prices and which already has 92 million customers in Europe, where it entered in April 2023.

Behind so much convenience there are several problems hidden.'First of all, the products: instructions for use in Chinese, cosmetics without a list of ingredients, toys with small parts that come off, as demonstrated by several tests by the European Toy Federation.

Quality and safety leave much to be desired. Customs, overwhelmed by goods coming from China, are forced to let many non-compliant products pass', explains 60 Millions de Consommateurs in the reasons for the 'prize'.

1.1) Unknowing disclosure of personal data

Personal data of consumers are the real value at stake, in transactions on e-commerce portals and 'online marketplaces'. In the case of Temu, as with Amazon and other giants of web sales, 'Big Data is the key'.

In March 2024, in fact detects '60 millions', Temu even 'offered vouchers and a sum in a PayPal account to new customers in exchange for lifetime use of their photo, name, voice, opinions, statements, biographical information and hometown'.

2) Nestlé, the giant fraud on mineral water

Nestlé, in second place, wins the Silver Cactus for the 15-year long mega-fraud of mineral waters subjected to prohibited treatments. (2)

'All Nestlé brands are affected by the use of prohibited treatments to eliminate contaminants such as coliform bacteria and traces of pollutants: microfiltration less than 0,8 microns, activated carbon and ultraviolet. He has since said he has given up ultraviolet treatments and activated carbon filters, but admits he has kept the microfiltration devices, with the agreement of the government.

These treatments, although not compliant, they protected consumers from the degradation of water quality… and this is Nestlé's line of defense. In short, the deception is there, but it is to protect the consumer', jokes the consumer organization.

3) Stellantis, defective airbags

The Bronze Cactus instead goes to the Stellantis automotive industry.'In the spring of 2024, more than 246.000 C3 and DS3 owners were suddenly ordered to stop driving their vehicle. The reason: risk of airbag rupture, which could cause serious injury or even death.'.

Lack of replacement cars and long waiting lists at garages to repair the defect have created panic among owners of the cars mentioned. But there's more.

'Takata (the Japanese airbag manufacturer, closed in 2018, ed.) had acknowledged the defect in its airbags in 2017, shortly before going bankrupt, and the risk had been known since 2015. This did not prevent Stellantis from continuing to sell models equipped with these airbags until 2019, without informing buyers.'.

Despite numerous deaths abroad following the explosion of Takata airbags, Stellantis remained silent. A new fatal accident, in the Pyrenees, finally triggered the recall campaign in May 2024'. End of the story? No, because 'the risk also concerns C4, DS4 and DS5'.

4) Primagaz, customers in the cold and without bills

The Cactus of Failure goes to Primagaz, a company that distributes gas in cylinders and tanks to homes not served by mains gas. The disastrous digital transition carried out by Primagaz in early 2024 has triggered a chain of problems for consumers.

'Significant delays in delivery, loss of all orders, poor billing service. Customers found themselves without a bill, but above all without heating in the middle of winter.
With the arrival of summer, the delivery difficulties were solved, but not the problems with the invoices, and the amounts due were sometimes enormous. Primagaz promised to accept payments in installments free of charge in the customer areas… which remained difficult to access'.

5) Dazn, low-cost cactus

Dazn, the football pay-TV, wins the low-cost Cactus. The platform has in fact drastically reduced the quality of the service. Initially sold at 29,99 euros, the subscription to watch Ligue 1 matches has been reduced to 19,90 euros. Still too much, according to consumers, who have since dropped to just 400 thousand subscriptions.

'The failure comes in part from the limited resources allocated to production. "Everything is low cost," summarizes Romain Molina, an independent journalist specializing in the field of soccer. The number of cameras, for example, has decreased by a third compared to last season." A previous season driven by Amazon Prime with curated sound and images, a pre- and post-match show: all this has disappeared on Dazn'.

6) Danone, the Cactus of opacity

The Cactus of Opacity is awarded to Danone, for its escape from the Nutri-Score. When the revision of the nutritional algorithm had worsened the evaluation of the drinking yogurts Actimel, Danonino, Alpro, Danone and Activia, the giant chose to eliminate the Nutri-Score from the label, instead of committing to the reformulation of the products. (3)

'After Bjorg, Krisprolls and certain cold cuts from Fleury Michon, Danone completes the list of those prefers to hide its nutritional profile rather than improve it'.

7) Cactus 2024 vulnerability to Free

The telephone company French Free has received the Cactus of vulnerability. A cyber attack on the operator resulted in the theft of customer data, with the theft of personal data of 19,1 million customers and 5,1 million bank details.

'In his communication Initially, Free did not mention the exfiltration of banking data, which is obviously the most worrying thing. On October 27, hackers distributed a sample of over 100.000 IBANs on a forum and put them all up for sale for $70.000'.

8) Carrefour bio, unwanted ingredients

In the products of the Carrefour organic line unwanted and undeclared ingredients were found. A slip-up that is worth assigning the Cactus Unwanted Presence to the organic line of the French GDO giant.

Analyzes conducted by '60 Millions' have identified two cases:

– in April 2024, the valerian in sachets contained a metabolite resulting from the degradation of a herbicide (dichlobenil), banned since 2009. The quantities found raised suspicions of a deliberate use of the agrotoxic. Carrefour denies it, claiming that the metabolite persists in the soil and can thus contaminate crops

– in the summer of 2024, analyses revealed the presence of traces of pig DNA in the 'pure beef' merguez sausages under the Carrefour brand.

9) Trustpilot, paid reviews

The Doping Cactus This is the latest award in the 2024 series and is given to Trustpilot, a review platform.

The reason? 'It is possible for companies tired of their negative ratings to pay a Trustpilot service that consists of asking customers to write a positive review, before publishing it. For amounts ranging from a few thousand euros to over 20.000 euros per year, depending on the size of the company, it is possible to obtain a significant increase in your rating. As in cycling, when the judgment is positive it is because there is a suspicion of doping'.

Marta Strinati