Software annual fee not mentioned until after sale

timbstoke

darrenlittlewood wrote: »

- I only found out about the renewal fee when I asked for a copy of the service costs.... this was 4 months after the purchase.

This is likely to be fatal to your case. If it's an annual license, you've used a third of it before you even noticed that there was an annual fee. They've apologised in writing, which is nice, but they still have your money. The best you can realistically hope for is a license extension by way of compensation for their failure to notify you of the terms. Rightly or wrongly, businesses are held to a higher standard than consumers when it comes to contracts, and they are generally deemed to know what they're getting themselves into when they hand over money.

antrobus

ThumbRemote wrote: »

I know this is well into hypotheticals, as it's not a consumer contract, but the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations specifically includes 'misleading omissions' on their list of prohibited practices'.

Their product info page states "no hidden costs" and gives a price of £1199 - http://www.eposnow.com/hospitality-epos-system-software-55.html - I would say that this is a misleading omission.

Presumably the company would argue that it was not hidden, as the contract states that "Continuance of the license to use Software is dependent upon the Customer continuing to pay the Annual License Fee or the Support Package. The Annual Licence Fee is £175 + VAT per device"?