Can companies refuse to send out tradespeople to non-French speakers?

Reader Question: We are having issues with Orange about sending engineers to our residence. We called the company, and the agent said they do not want to send somebody out as we do not speak French. What should we do? 

Companies should as a general rule not be refusing a service to a client unless their request is ‘abnormal’, states the French Insititut National de la Consommation. 

Having a tradesperson you can communicate in English with is unlikely an ‘abnormal’ request due to the language’s popularity and global status as a lingua franca (intermediary language) and the fact that Orange is a large company.

Refusal to help you on language grounds may also count as illegal discrimination. 

The relevant legal text is Article 225 of the French Criminal Code, which was updated in 2016.

This states that people must not be discriminated against on the basis of their ‘ability to express themselves in a language other than French’. 

While this clearly means that a firm cannot, for example, demand a person speak English, language-learning resource Assimil says requiring someone to only speak French may also count. 

French newspaper Le Figaro has also interpreted the law this way.

Either way, we consider you have grounds for a complaint to the company, which in fact has a dedicated English-language helpline. 

This is available on 09 69 36 39 00 (inside France) and is free to people with an Orange landline. 

They may be able to help you, either by giving further explanation or organising an engineer to visit your property.

Read more: Telecom firms, utilities: which offer English language services in France?

If this fails, you can make a complaint to Orange’s customer service team (this step is a prerequisite to taking further action). 

To guarantee the complaint is lodged, you should send it via a lettre recommandée avec avis de réception (letter with recorded delivery). 

Complaint to the mediator 

If the issue cannot be resolved internally, you could also make a complaint to telecoms ombudsman La médiation des communications électroniques. 

To send a complaint, your telecoms operator must be on the list of companies signed up to the mediator (Orange is on the list). 

The service is free to use, and you can make a claim online through its website. 

You must wait one month from sending an email or letter to your telecoms provider’s customer service team before applying to the mediator. 

When applying, you will be able to explain the situation and reason for the complaint. We recommend you cite the French Criminal Code linked above as part of your argument. 

Once your dossier is accepted by the mediator (which could take up to 18 days) it then has 90 days to attempt to resolve the dispute. 

It will tell you after this time whether it has managed to find a resolution, which you can either choose to accept or reject. 

Court action is in this case the last resort. 

Note that another possible avenue for help is the free Défenseur des droits (rights defender) service, which could assess whether the refusal counts as discrimination, and if necessary mediate. 

Read more: Did you know? France has a team ready to defend foreigners’ rights