The case is now in the hands of the courts. Placed on March 18 in safeguard proceedings by claiming that more than 1,000 jobs were threatened, Scopelec, subcontractor of Orange for the installation of optical fiber, is suing the telecom giant according to the JDD, for “rupture brutal commercial relationship”, after the loss of 65% of its contracts with Orange, its main customer, following a call for tenders in November 2021. The damage is significant for Scopelec, the largest group cooperative in France with 3,600 employees. The loss of these contracts, which will take effect on March 31, will cause it to lose 40% of its turnover, estimated at 475 million euros in 2021.
Orange disputes
By taking Orange to court, Scopelec accuses it of not having respected the notice and of not having accompanied it in this change, which Orange disputes.
“The purpose of this summons is to enforce our rights to a useful notice and our rights to support, including financial, in the face of the damages suffered”, indicated the chairman of the management board of the Scopelec group, Thomas Foppiani, in a statement sent to the AFP.
“It is normal for Orange to assume its responsibilities and compensate for its shortcomings”, he continued, believing that “no one can bear to lose 40% of their turnover overnight”. The telecom giant does not see it that way and claims to have “respected all deadlines”.
“Orange disputes the merits of this assignment. The winners of the contract in force until March 31, 2022 were notified in 2018 of the end of this contract and the launch of a new call for tenders. This was formally notified to them. notified in April 2020, i.e. 23 months before the end, with a notice period greater than usual”, explains Orange in a press release.
In mid-March, Marc Blanchet, Technical and Information Systems Director of Orange France, indicated that “the non-renewal of the contract with Scopelec was part of a general context of reduced activity in the maintenance of the copper network and fiber installation. Orange is counting on a 20% drop in this activity over the next few years”. He also pointed to quality issues. After several warnings in recent years, the quality of the services offered by certain current service providers, including Scopelec, which has received several dozens of formal notices due to breaches in certain territories, led Orange to review the allocation of the areas entrusted to each”, explained in December the former France Telecom, of which the State is the largest shareholder.
“There is a demand for increased quality among customers: we can’t stand it when a technician doesn’t arrive in the two-hour slot that has been set,” Marc Blanchet also explained to AFP.
In an interview granted on January 20 to LaTribune, Patricia Goriaux, director of Orange Grand Sud-Ouest, declared that Scopelec had not respected its contractual commitments.
Scopelec remains one of Orange’s six major partners
Scopelec remains one of the “six major companies selected” for the fiber optic installation work and the maintenance of the copper network, the French giant also said. Established on more than 90 sites in France, Scopelec remains one of the six “major” partners retained by Orange despite the loss of these contracts.
“The questioning of a service provider in a territory has no impact on local employment,” added Orange, which has around 14,000 people employed in total on these subcontracting activities. The contracts lost by Scopelec went to the companies Solution 30 in Occitanie, Spie in the Pays de la Loire, Sade in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, as well as Vinci and Constructel. For its part, Sogetrel, which specializes in fiber and very high-speed networks, lost the Orange market in the North and Pays de la Loire at the end of 2021, and won markets in particular in the South and South-West at from the end of March.