aardvark.dj
Monday 23 January 2006
Stop the European City Guide and Novachannel
Some time ago I blogged about the European City Guide and its attempts to extort money from my employer. That entry has become one of the most commented on entries, an indication of the number of people they have tried this on and the level of feelings it generates.
On that entry I linked to the site Stop The European City Guide!, a site that aims to highlight the dubious practices the ECG and all "companies that mail documents that they claim to be legally binding contracts where the document is formulated in such a way as to make it possible that people will sign it in error."
Unfortunately the site is currently under legal attack from Novachannel AG, a Swiss company that StopECG has highlighted for similar practices and that, according to the Daily Mirror, is under investigation by Swiss authorities.
In a case that would have profound legal implications for freedom of speech on the internet, Novachannel has threatened to sue an upstream provider for communicating data hosted on StopECG's own server.
For some weeks now the StopECG site has either been been unavailable as it tries to resolve this problem. The story has even made the national papers (copy to right - click for biggie), with (hopefully) more to follow.
If you've been scammed by the European City Guide, NovaChannel or any other company operating in a similar fashion, please do read the StopECG site before you do anything else. Even if you haven't, please visit and show your support.
Update: The Register has coverage of StopECG's problems.
6 Comments
Hi,
I am the man involved in the criminal activity of authoring www.stopecg.org . That is if you believe the letters sent by Novachannel's UK Lawyer.
The letters sent by Nick Cunningham of Wragge & Co LLP have been enough to scare our upstream provider into pulling the plug. Read this excellent write up on the blog of
Richard Corbett MEP
Or this from the
Daily Mirror
There are too many people in dispute with Meinolf Lüdenbach’s guide companies for us to walk away from this! If www.stopecg.org is offline when you check, please try again a day or so later
Jules Woodell
I will be pleased to assist people located in France in asnwering to ECGD letters. This assistance will, of course be provided, for free (I am currently assiting friends who are unduly harassed by ECGD).
Hi
I am in the process of an attempted scam, I have been hounded by these people since 2004, I have refused to pay over 4,000 euros and the tactic are getting very heavy handed now, threatening phonecall, threatening letters, the whole thing. I was misled, i thought I was signing an update of a free directory, but I was apparently signing for advertising of over 700 euros, we are a little b&B in the lakes, and we would not have this level of advertising. I wrote, almost begged them to remove it, and yet they have rolled it over every year and added the charges on and now have added 512 euros expenses for letters. I am sitting it out, they will not get a penny out of me, robbing b******s. i shall see my solicitor on Monday but they just ignore all correspondence so whats the point, I will just have to see where it leads, can anyone offer any advice?
Hi
I am in the process of an attempted scam, I have been hounded by these people since 2004, I have refused to pay over 4,000 euros and the tactic are getting very heavy handed now, threatening phonecall, threatening letters, the whole thing. I was misled, i thought I was signing an update of a free directory, but I was apparently signing for advertising of over 700 euros, we are a little b&B in the lakes, and we would not have this level of advertising. I wrote, almost begged them to remove it, and yet they have rolled it over every year and added the charges on and now have added 512 euros expenses for letters. I am sitting it out, they will not get a penny out of me, robbing b******s. i shall see my solicitor on Monday but they just ignore all correspondence so whats the point, I will just have to see where it leads, can anyone offer any advice?
We are a small hotel in south west france. Like many others I have been duped into this so called contract. It is about 10months since I first recieved an invoice for some spurious publicity. The Last bill I recieved yesterday demanded near 2,400€. I havent paid anything yet and dont intend to do so, but would like some advice. I have written about 4-5 letters since last December cancelling the contract but the invoices still keep coming.
You need to read the information at www.stopecg.org you will not have to pay a thing.
