European City Guide and its small print...

Spocker

Just to let the big wide world know....

The missus works in an opticians and received a letter in the post from a company called "European City Guide" based in Spain.

I didn't see the form/letter myself but the gist of it is this: "Please confirm your companys details (name, address, area of business) and return it to us, even if you do not wish to place an order", for inclusion in a European wide business catalogue.

So far, so simple - form duly returned (hey free advertising, how wrong can you go....?)

Lo and behold the invoice for €700 arrives in the letterbox some weeks later as an "advertising fee". Apparently this fee is mentioned in the small print (taken from a Sunday Business Post artice):

However at the bottom of form, in much smaller print, the form reads: "We hereby place an order with 'ECG' to print the above given details in the next and the following two editions of the 'European City Guide'.... These costs will be charged anually and in advance. They are payable three weeks from the date of invoice. Retroactive cancellation is not possible. The contract becomes valid and binding on receipt of the order

So far the best advice I've come accross is just to not pay - you can either write to them and state "we have no legal liability to pay as the person who signed the order did not have authority to order goods or services on behalf of the company" or you could deny that there was any intention to become contracted (i.e. the form was misleading).

I've read of some companies that did pay up in the face of legal action from a debt collection agency but I don't think that anyone in Ireland has been taken to court (yet).

Best advice so far is don't return the form (bin it), but if you did don't pay and stand your ground. This company have been forced to close before because of misleading advertising.

I do believe that ECG arn't infringing any consumer legistlation, but Irish law does dictate that directories must print the date of publication and cost of the directory on order forms which apparently ECG don't - can this be used as a get-out clause...?

I hope this helps anyone that may have been stung with this.... :eek:

Maximilian

That sounds a lot like "inertia selling", which is illegal here under the Sale of Goods Act 1980 I think. Don't pay them. Also, ask them to remove the details from the "guide". I very much doubt they would find any sympathy from a judge to be honest.

Spocker

Cheers Max, I hadn't thought about the asking them to "remove from the guide" bit.....

I'll pass it on and see what happens....