Unpaid Prize Money

rANDY_2

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone knew what action I could take when a company withholds prize money I won?

The company in question (the Electronic Sports League, ESL) owes me £150 for a gaming tournament they hosted which ran from 04/10/2010 until 14/03/2011, so now it has been nearly 8 months since it ended. Whenever I contact them to request when payment will be made they always reply something along the lines of "Not yet, we will pay though".

I feel powerless and don't know what to do. I feel the sum of money, although an important size to me, does not warrant or is not worth getting legal advice for. I feel 8 months is a ludicrous amount of time to wait! I feel like I'm giving out interest free loans that I can't afford.

Here are some examples of the responses they gave me:

"
messioso#2 | 26/10/11 00:20
Hello rANDY,

We are aware of the issue. All outstanding prize money is paid in chronological order and EPS UK Season 4 has not gotten to the top of the list yet.

When the time comes for the payments to be made you will be notified.

Best regards,
messioso, ESL Admin
"

"Hello rANDY,

All I can do is apologise for the delay and reassure you that the money will be paid eventually however we are unable to do so at this time. The ESL has a perfect record in always paying out prizemoney and once we are ready to pay we will be in touch.

Best regards,
Luke, ESL Admin"


Thanks for any help you can give me, rANDY

esuhl

What to the terms and conditions say regarding the payout of prize money?

rANDY_2

I can't find any with regards to paying it out, it doesn't seem to be mentioned.

esl.eu/uk/pro-series/season4/sc2/1on1/#/uk/pro-series/season4/sc2/1on1/rules

esuhl

rANDY wrote: »

I can't find any with regards to paying it out, it doesn't seem to be mentioned.

esl.eu/uk/pro-series/season4/sc2/1on1/#/uk/pro-series/season4/sc2/1on1/rules

Hmmm... Given the almost complete lack of a mention of prize money, I really don't know whether you could argue that you have a contract (and that they ought to pay out in a "reasonable" amount of time), or whether the prize is a sort-of bonus that is implied but not guaranteed. Sorry - that's no help whatsoever!

If you have any promotional material that mentions the prize, maybe that could be used to demonstrate that the prize was included in the contract and that (in the absence of any terms that say that they can withhold or delay payment) it should be paid promptly...

Any more clued up armchair lawyers out there?

texranger

have you tried http://www.esl.eu/eu/complaints/

pity they are not based in the UK as you could have contacted the local authority where they were based as they would need to be licenced and have to issue prize money is a reasonable timeframe