Small claims court.
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When someone posts asking how to do something foolish it's generally better to advise them accordingly rather than help them do the foolish thing.Supersonos wrote: »Everyone on here is doing a great job of ignoring your question.
The OP will be laughed out of court when they present their "evidence" from media reporting as their argument for why a different legal entity is liable for their claim.
Their only chance of success is if the company they're claiming against decide it's cheaper to pay up rather than defend the claim long enough to get it dismissed.
The MSE guide sets out what expenses can be awarded:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/small-claims-court0 -
The ECJ don't have jurisdiction over Switzerland since they are not a member of the EU.
Switzerland is a member of the EFTA and has signed up to EU law in this area through the Lugano Convention.
As such the rules of the Brussels Regulation (which is the EU law governing jurisdiction between different national court systems), and the decisions of the ECJ in relation to the same, are incorporated into Swiss law and apply in Switzerland.
In any event, the statutory protection of unfair terms under English law are mandatory and apply to all UK consumers regardless of the governing law clause in a contract. If the clause giving jurisdiction to the Swiss courts is an unfair term, that term has no legal effect.
I think the Op could be extremely confident bringing a small claim in the English courts - so long as he sues the correct company. He doesn't need to go to Switzerland.0 -
Op, my advice would be to withdraw your current claim.
Re-issue the claim against the correct company. Even if that happens to be a Swiss company - if they are doing business in the UK they can be served in the UK.0 -
It is impossible to comment without knowing the details of exactly why the Defendant's law firm have told the Op to drop the case. The Op would need to give us more details for anyone to say whether the case is vexatious or not.Whilst an extreme example is it reasonable for the company to stand its own costs in this instance?
If the case is vexatious, then absolutely the Defendant may seek legal costs if it loses.
If the case is reasonable, then even if the Op ultimately loses it is incredibly unlikely that legal costs would be awarded in small claims track.
If the Op is knowingly bringing forward a claim against the wrong defendant, I think an argument could be made that it is a vexatious claim.0 -
The bar for determining a vexatious litigant seems to be very high. In the parking tickets world there are companies who are serial litigants bringing cases with no hope of success if properly defended yet they continue to bring them ... and they are still not determined (as yet, in any case) as vexatious.
However a claim against the wrong defendant could be seen as unreasonable, and so extended costs could be awarded by the judge under the CPRs (can't remember which clause) for unreasonable behaviour.0 -
steampowered wrote: »Op, my advice would be to withdraw your current claim.
Re-issue the claim against the correct company. Even if that happens to be a Swiss company - if they are doing business in the UK they can be served in the UK.
One difficulty people have found is that Viagogo have no UK address. They only physical address for them seems to be Switzerland or the USA. How do people serve papers? Do you simply put the Swiss address and the system sorts it out?0 -
One difficulty people have found is that Viagogo have no UK address. They only physical address for them seems to be Switzerland or the USA. How do people serve papers? Do you simply put the Swiss address and the system sorts it out?
The rules on service are set out here: https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part06
The rules allow you to serve a company at "any place within the jurisdiction where the corporation carries on its activities and which has a real connection with the claim."
So you don't necessarily need to have a formal registered address mentioned on T&Cs. If you can prove that Viagogo is doing business from an address in the UK, you can serve proceedings against them there. Hopefully your research will be useful for demonstrating this.
Serving English proceedings to an address outside England & Wales is possible but is a bit more complicated - you would have to serve it (rather than the court) and would need to file a certificate of service.
More practically speaking, if you do manage to get a CCJ, you would need to identify assets belonging to Viagogo to be able to enforce that judgment. If Viagogo does not have assets in the UK you could have an enforcement problem.
I am assuming the letter you were written by VGL's lawyers says you should be suing Viagogo, it is difficult to comment without knowing what the letter says.0 -
Supersonos wrote: »Everyone on here is doing a great job of ignoring your question.
Claimable costs in the small claims track are very limited. Legal costs cannot be reclaimed, regardless of whether you win or lose.
No, but as he's acting for himself the litigant in person rates can be claimed at £19p/h (all monies are obviously at the discretion of the court)I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0 -
Viagogo & VGL seem to have a UK office - https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/jul/20/mps-threatened-with-arrest-after-protest-at-viagogo-office
71 Fenchurch Street is the address given by the MP's in the article.
It seems that the OP is not the only one having issues between the two companies.I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0 -
You're not even putting in a proper claim, you can't sue someone for not selling you something.
If you believe you had a proper contract (just making an offer isn't a contract) that was breached then your claim is for "loss of bargain". Did you take the necessary steps to win this?
First thing you have to do is find the item elsewhere for the best price you can get it (mitigating the loss) then you need to actually buy it, bid you buy it? Then you can take them to court for the difference of what you paid against what they were charging.
So If you were buying something for £350 and the breached this contract then you found the next best price was £400 then you can only sue for the difference £50 plus costs.
I don't think you actually know what you're even doing here, first you're suing the wrong company and second are you actually suing for the correct reason.
As for costs as it stands you will lose your own costs and the judge will make you pay their reasonable costs as they will not be impressed that you made this claim in the first place.0
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