Novachannel AG / Tourist Directory

Both the European City Guide (ECG) and Construct Data (The Fair Guide) have examples form Southern France, Novachannel uses a Hamburg example

These cases all have certain issues in common

1. The Guide was the defendant, this is not always immediately apparent when you get sent incomplete papers or papers with parts blacked out, so if the debt collectors send you an example, read if carefully! Please also forward it to StopECG
2. The case was brought by a complainant and although there is some discussion about the small print, it is rarely in connection with the enforcability of the contact. In the Hamburg decision for example it concerns whether German courts have jurisdiction, bearing in mind that Novachannel are in Switzerland. In all 3 cases the complainant lost but either did not appeal or we have no information about the appeal. (Where these contracts have gone to higher courts they have generally been ruled to be misleading or even criminal - See Chemnitz decision)
3. The Complainant in all the cases we have seen did not contact stopECG, we are also unaware of them contacting any other opposition websites for help/advice, for some reason they went it alone.

Do these rulings affect you??

If you are in dispute with a guide and are refusing to pay then it may be unsettling to receive papers that appear to give validity to the disputed contract (or a version thereof). If that were not the case Premium Recovery AG and Gravis Inkasso Gmbh would not have made the effort to get translations and send them to you!

Were one of these guides to go to court as the complainant (I.e. To try and enforce a contract) they would be sure to quote these examples, however contracts used by the Lüdenbach guides and similar contracts have repeatedly been ruled as misleading in much higher courts, so these cases would be unlikely to have much bearing.

Much more important is the fact that (not for want of looking) we have yet to find a single example where Novachannel, ECG or Fair Guide has gone to court to try and enforce a contract. They will shout about it, send threats, but when the chips are down and people refuse to pay, they simply give up.

See the Hamburg papers (This is an English translation sent by the debt collectors)