Portuguese company threatening to sue me

LeBon

Long story short.

Ryanair delayed me 4 hours. Entitled to compensation. I ask a Portuguese company called aireclaim to help.
They take 25% of the €250 compensation.

Ryanair sent me the 250 direct and cut them out of the loop. Now they are demanding 66% of the money as I went behind their back, but they are willing to settle for 25%.

Failure to pay means they will sue and claim expenses of €4000 for their lawyers.

Surely no court would entertain this?

They won't send me an invoice and want the money deposited in an account unconnected to the company.

I assume their threats to sue are baseless?

I am happy to give the 25% but they won't issue an invoice. They say they would have to add VAT. So they just want me to send the money as a gift.

Also I am not happy to participate in tax evasion. The IBAN is not theirs or in anyway connected with the company. It appears to belong to a random person. The name on the account is not the company.

My question is would any judge in small claims allow that level of expenses on a 100 euro claim?

Carrot007

25% is pretty standard for these companies. And yes that is before VAT to draw you in. So If you want an invoice yes they will add VAT (making it that they take around a third), same for any claims company in the UK. This is why you take 5 mins to do it yourself.

JPears

Sounds very dodgy me.
If you do entertain payment, I would insist on a signed letter on the compans letterhead, releasing you from any further payments or claims from the company
I suspect you are correct, that a judge would not look kindly on a company trying to circumt their own legally binding terms and conditions.

sourcrates

It will never see a court, have yet to see a foreign debt been enforced through an English court for such a small amount.

I would advise you do not pay them.

Let this be a salutary lesson as to why you never use claims management companies especially foreign ones.