Advice

[gkd_uk]

Hi

I'm not sure whether this is the correct forum for advice so apoolgies if this is not the correct question to ask.

I have a friend (Student) who purchased a few electric products from a market place. When purchasing them, he was told they were 100% genuine.

He placed them on Ebay and they sold quickly as they were a popular brand. He decided to purchase some more and again they sold and he recieved good feed back from all buyers.

After a few months, Ebay removed any further listings stating that the products were not genuine

So he stopped listing them on Ebay. After 4 months, he recieved a letter from a law firm stating that they worked for the brand and that they had noticed that he was selling their trade marked product which was not genuine.

He wrote back, describing what had happended and that he was not aware that they were not genuine as he had been told that they were 100% genuine.

A couple of days later, the law firm replied stating that his excuse was unacceptable and that he must pay for what he sold.

So basically he had been scammed as he was told they were genuine. The person who he purchased the products from is no longer there.

He has decided not to reply back to the law firm as he has described the whole story.

Can anyone provide some advice on what his rights are please? He is a bit stressed as the firm may take legal action againsta him. He is upset that he was not aware thet they were not genuine but when Ebay notified him, he did stop listing them.

[Will]

It sounds like it might just be a scare tactic, but that doesn't help your friend and he won't know for sure. I would want to get it resolved.

Will

[gkd_uk]

Thanks Will

If he was not aware, i believe they can not penalise him. (That is my opinion)

Anyone else got any advice?

[Tony]

Hi Gkd,

They cannot force him to pay unless there is a court order to that effect.

The fact he was not aware may not be adefence and the circumstances are important. For example, if we are taking about 10 Rolex watches for £100 then most people would conclude that they were stolen or fakes. Were they were bought from a Rolex dealer or from a bloke down the pub, if the latter most would think it strange.

As neither trading stadards nor the police are not knocking at his door I guess they are thinking about a civil case. If this is the case they will be weighing up the costs or pursuing the case against the return and the possibility of winning i.e. the business case. I am pretty sure it wouldn't stack up and I bet a fair number of people pay up when they receive those scare letters, after that they just give up.

I hope this helps,

Tony

[gkd_uk]

Thanks Tony
If they do win, should he not just be paying the profits he made rather then the whole amount?

Do you think it is worth calling them or writing to them or should just wait

[Tony]

They will claim that the buyer would have bought their product at the full price and have lost x amount of income. They would probably ask for the full retail price and you would have to argue that direct costs i.e. cost of sales needs to be deducted.

If they win they will also get full legal costs. Unless they use the small claims process in which case their claim needs to be less than £5000.

Personally I would want this hanging over me and I don't think there is a time limit for this type of claim, so it might be worth getting him to go to Citizen's Advice and getting them to help draft a letter.

I hope this helps let us know what he decides to do and how he gets on.

Tony

[Paul Carcone]

Hi,

You will need to seek PROFESSIONAL legal advice here. Often, solicitors will offer a FREE 30 minute consultation - and this should be enough to find the appropriate legal principle. If he is a student, he may well be entitled to free Legal Aid too.

If more guidance is required, then your friend should call the Consumer Advice Bureau as they should be able to help.

Paul Carcone