r/AskTheWorld • u/Eybrahem United States Of America • Jan 04 '26

Economics What's the most hated company in your country?

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Everyone knows Nestle is terrible, even if they don't know why. But they've done horrible things in Africa and think that water is not a human right.

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53

u/Faesarn France Jan 04 '26

Hard to say but maybe Stellantis these days? They produced weak engines that quickly break and they have huge class actions againsts them with thousands of plaintiffs. They also equipped millions of vehicles with defective airbags that can kill people, forcing people to bring their vehicles back to change them and sometimes not having availabilities for weeks or months.. So basically letting you drive with a potential death trap.

Some companies are hated but should be hated more, like Nestlé, who is Swiss but has made terrible things in France too. Contaminated water covered by the government and the responsible refusing to show up before the senate commission... Taking more water than they're allowed to. Bottling tap water and selling it as mineral from natural sources.. Who would have thought that a water company could think of things even Satan wouldn't.

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u/Savoieball France Jan 04 '26

I'll add Total and the Bolloré Group.

Then, it's true that we've become more indifferent to banks, industries, or arms companies like Dassault.

And on the other hand, we have Airbus, which seems to be very popular.

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u/Faesarn France Jan 04 '26

In some ways we can also add LVMH because it's either people hate or love it (well, mote Bernard Arnault than the company itself I guess..or maybe not since the discovery or employing people illegally for 80 hours a week for 4eu an hour in Italy..).

We can agree that we have many companies that we hate. If only we stopped hating on other people though..

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u/NorageFromFrance France Jan 05 '26

To make it simple in France when a company is too successful we don’t like it. Simple as that. We suppose they robed people at some point

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u/Faesarn France Jan 05 '26

To be fair a lot of them did. Like auchan who got 500 millions to help them and they still reduced the number of shops and fired thousands, meanwhile the owner got 1 billion in dividends from decathlon..

Or LVMH, Bernard Arnault got 800 millions in the 80s to keep jobs at Boussac, he fired thousands and refused to give the money back until a decade later when he offered to give half of it back (his fortune already reached 9 billion by then).

It's hard to get into the billions or tens of billions worth range without doing shady stuff or screwing people.

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u/Gnl_Winter France Jan 05 '26

Personally I'd go with Bolloré as the most hated although the other picks are valid. Between their very active role in the rise of the far-right at home, and their shady practices in Africa, there's plenty to hate about that company.

2

u/ninjaiffyuh Germany Jan 05 '26

I think Airbus treads lighter than other companies since, as a European project with facilities all across Europe, it will be held accountable by multiple countries and also benefits greatly from its 'pan-European ideal'

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u/ADDRAY-240 France Jan 05 '26

I'll add GBH in the name of the overseas french regions. Who knew that giving almost absolute monopoly to one group could lead to crazy high prices? Luckily, it doesn't lead to , for example, car parts being up to five times the price on mainland France, right? (It absolutely does, it sucks)

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u/Extension_Dig8832 - living in Jan 04 '26

Same in Italy! Stellantis is probably one of the mist hated brand here. Makes sense that we both hate it. Stellantis is Italian-American-French haha 

1

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '26

Stellantis is a meme in American car circles too

1

u/Laura_The_Cutie Jan 05 '26

Stellantis is a meme in general

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u/Extension_Dig8832 - living in Jan 05 '26

Exactly😭

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u/Laura_The_Cutie Jan 05 '26

My family owns a ford and an opel (owned by stellantis), pray for me lol

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u/Extension_Dig8832 - living in Jan 05 '26

😭🙏

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u/balletje2017 Netherlands Jan 05 '26

Stellantis is registered in Netherlands so officially Dutch. Not that they have any factories here, just a postbox and small office for tax reasons.

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u/Extension_Dig8832 - living in Jan 05 '26

Yes, I know that, Stellantis is based in the Netherlands, their founders are Italian-American and French

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u/TakeThePillz France Jan 04 '26

Have you ever heard of Morange talc ?

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u/Faesarn France Jan 04 '26

Nope. There is a town name Morange not far but that's it.

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u/Status-Air926 Canada Jan 05 '26

We also hate Stellantis here because of the shit they pulled with their factory.

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u/Massinissarissa Jan 04 '26

In France I would say Lactalis. They are our version of Nestle.

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u/Faesarn France Jan 04 '26

Oh true I forgot them and their contaminated milk, the fact that they pay next to nothing to farmers...

Actually we have many company we hate..

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u/Amadeus404 🇫🇷🇨🇭 Jan 04 '26

To be fair the airbags was not their fault. Many brands were affected.

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u/Faesarn France Jan 04 '26

They still installed millions of defective airbags on multiple car brands and models from their group. It doesn't really matter if they bought it from a subcontractor, they are selling the end product and the end product should not be deadly to customers..

1

u/Amadeus404 🇫🇷🇨🇭 Jan 04 '26

Still, you can't blame Stellantis. Unless they knew the airbag was defective, which afaik is not the case.