While the practice of personalized support, also known as “coaching”, has been booming for several years, the DGCCRF calls on consumers to be cautious.
They are now legion to praise their merits on social networks and yet: according to un new report from the DGCCRF (General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention)THE “wellness coaches” mostly have practices “misleading”.
165 professionals and training establishments checked
In 2021 and 2022, the DGCCRF conducted a survey on commercial practices in the “wellness coaching”. In order to protect the most vulnerable consumers in particular, public health experts have particularly targeted coaches whose specialties were related to physiological balance or mental balance (stress management, weight loss, fight against certain addictions. ..), THE “life coaches” and the “personal development coaches”. Assessment: “out of 165 professionals and training establishments checked, nearly 80% presented at least one anomaly concerning the information delivered to consumers in terms of skills, titles and rewarding mentions”, lament the authors of the study.
In about 20% of the professionals inspected, the DGCCRF services also found misleading commercial practices that could mislead consumers. Thus, some concerned the highlighting of qualifications not held by the coach (such as “a diploma for a magnetizer”), the maintenance of confusion with the medical profession by using terms specific to this sector (“consultation”, “doctor”), the use of false therapeutic claims (sessions suppressing “fibromyalgia”, “tendonitis” Or “the allergies”) or the specialization of their coaching practices for the fight against behavioral disorders (for example “eating”) which are clinically monitored.
“These practices, which create confusion about the qualities of professionals or the expected results of a service, can go so far as to cause a loss of medical opportunity for consumers” believe the members of the DGCCRF.
In addition, more than half of the professionals inspected were unaware of the regulations on information and the provision of documents to consumers: lack of information on prices, the absence of delivery of a bill for services over 25 euros or even abusive clauses in contracts (limitation of the professional’s liability in the event of an error in the data communicated, limitation of the consumer’s rights for the exercise of his means and remedies, etc.) have thus been highlighted.
The checks carried out in the training centers also showed that these training courses are often offered at a high cost for sometimes very short periods (from a few hours to a few days), “their content being sometimes obscure”, esteem in the DGCCRF. At their end, training certificates in free denominations are given to participants and wrongly presented as diplomas with qualification value.
Stay “vigilant”
These checks gave rise to 71 warnings, 59 injunctions and 1 criminal report. “The majority of the professionals concerned having quickly brought themselves into compliance, the use of educational suites was preferred”, states the report. “Practices related to the misuse of medical data (such as the request for consumer blood tests), or likely to be related to sectarian aberrations, have also been identified and have been reported to the competent authorities. “, note the experts.
The DGCCRF therefore calls on consumers subscribing to coaching services to remain vigilant, to find out about the skills or titles of professionals and to ask for proof of advanced mentions.
In the event of difficulty with a professional, consumers can report it on the SignalConso website and seize the competent mediator (coaches have the obligation to subscribe to this service, editor’s note).
