Taking a foreign company to a small claims court

KeithP

Sarah1987 wrote: »

Surely if they're trading in the UK then they have to follow our consumer laws and there must be some recourse here in the UK other than filing a lawsuit in another country?

Re-read post#11.

It appears you can use UK laws against them, and will win if they do not defend your claim.

But as said, how are you going to enforce the judgement?

Perhaps you could set a US firm of debt collectors on them, but remember your costs, which are of course added to your claim if it is ever paid, are rising all the time.

unholyangel

Sarah1987 wrote: »

Surely if they're trading in the UK then they have to follow our consumer laws and there must be some recourse here in the UK other than filing a lawsuit in another country?

But they're not trading in the UK. They're trading in the US to people from the UK.

Same as amazon aren't bound by UK law because they have no physical presence here in the UK (their "fulfilment centres" are run by amazon.co.uk ltd but when you purchase from them, you purchase from amazon EU sarl who then contract out their duties to the third party amazon.co.uk).

If a company has a physical presence then the EU conventions state that they can't use another countries laws if it leads to less favourable treatment for the consumer compared to what they'd have in the national law of the country they are resident. If they don't have a physical presence then they could voluntarily apply english or scots law to the contract but most will have their contracts governed by the laws of the country from which they trade.

Fwiw, if you brought action against a UK company for £1.52, I expect the judge would either throw out your claim, not award your costs or possibly even award costs against you. You wouldn't be able to use MCOL (moneyclaim online) due to not issuing to an address in england & wales. Which means minimum filing fee of £30. And a minimum hearing fee of £25. Paying out £55 plus the expenses/time involved in travelling to/from court + time off work + time (likely several hours at a minimum) spent trying to sort it before then......which I'm sure you can appreciate is completely over the top for the trivial sum of £1.52.

unholyangel

KeithP wrote: »

Re-read post#11.

It appears you can use UK laws against them, and will win if they do not defend your claim.

But as said, how are you going to enforce the judgement?

Perhaps you could set a US firm of debt collectors on them, but remember your costs, which are of course added to your claim if it is ever paid, are rising all the time.

They changed the rules on costs. It used to be they were recoverable if they were reasonable & necessary. Now they must also be proportionate to the amount claimed.


CPR rule 44.3

LilElvis

Sarah1987 wrote: »

Well if I do a chargeback then my account would be locked. I just checked a website that tells you the value of your steam account and the current value of all the games/software I own on steam is £2,921. I cant however imagine them locking my account if a court ruled in my favour though.

Of course they can lock your account - exactly the same as Sony and Amazon do if you !!!! them off. What will you do then to get them to reinstigate the account. Answer is sweet FA.

shaun_from_Africa

LilElvis wrote: »

Of course they can lock your account - exactly the same as Sony and Amazon do if you !!!! them off.

As do both eBay and Paypal.
I don't think I've ever read a more clear cut example of:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_off_the_nose_to_spite_the_face

Annie35

Sarah1987 wrote: »

Maybe I'm mistaken but I thought this site was called MoneySavingExpert. I'd rather have my £1.52 back which has been stolen than just giving it away for nothing. Why don't you go send every company you've ever done business with £1.52 to get nothing in return and see how much money you're saving then.

i know i know, but... aargh, i really cant :rotfl: it's all too much :rotfl: , get yourself on twitter & facebook being a right a$$ & i'll bet (£1.52) you'll have your refund before the nights out. (brands LOOOOVE visible customer service)

just need some tesco bags for life input & this could well be one of the best cod threads for a while :rotfl:

CoolHotCold

steampowered wrote: »

Just FYI for the Op, this would result in steam restricting his account, meaning he may lose access to the £1000 of games he has bought.

Oh but OP doesnt care about that. He's already stated that its the principle of it that matters, not the actual amount. So losing access to his games doesn't matter.

photome

Is the OP a he with a username of Sarah

DCFC79

I understand the principle of it OP but really for £1.52 I would just let it go and move on with life, in fact I wouldnt have clicked twice on buy but leave it a while and check it did go through.

bris

Even if you could take Steam to the small claims court, which you can't the judge would lambast you for bringing a frivolous claim. they would make you pay all the court cost too.


The fact is you bought something twice, you were probably to quick with the second transaction anyway so you might not even have a case.


Do you really want to lose your steam account for £1,52? You need to step back and actually think about what you are posting here.