European City Guide punished

Punishment for misleading advertising: close for 1 year and pay a fine of 300,000 Euros

Page Originally Published 9th Sep 2003, Last update 22nd September 2008

Soon after the conviction an appeal was launched and as a purely procedural matter the ECG's punishment was suspended pending the outcome of that appeal.

The ECG then used the suspension of the punishemnt to make the spurious claim that they had not suffered any conviction, this was furthar extended to accusations that the author of StopECG was lying!

However in early 2007 the ECG's appeal against conviction for misleading advertising was thrown out The Appeal process is exhausted and the conviction stands.

If you are in dispute with the ECG regarding a contract signed before the summer of 2003 please write to the Catalan authority in Barcelona.


Old notes, for reference only

22nd September 2003 We have recieved clarification on the ruling.

The OFT have now issued a full Press release The fine is of 300,000 Euros (Approx £200,000), and the European City Guide is to be closed for one year

  1. The ECG have the right to appeal, and have 2 months to lodge the appeal, this means they can still trade :(
  2. the fine was the maximum possible, showing that the Catalans really have had enough of this scam :)
Since the ruling the ECG have mailed letters that have the return address for undeliverables of:

CC INTERNATIONAL
SPI ES 046
8058 ZURICH
Switzerland


This could be the first step by the Swiss owners towards moving the business out of Barcelona.

The main thing is that the ECG can no longer try to hide behind the charade that it is a legitimate operation! It is a scam and has been punished for that.

What if you recieve demands for money? You are now in a VERY strong position! The ECG are hardly likely to take you to court after this, it will hardly stand in their favour that government websites call them a scam or that they have been fined and closed for a year.

It is probably easiest simply to ignore their mail, however please feel free to print out the OFT press release, mail it off and rub their noses in it a little....

What we urge against is returning ECG mail as "not known at this address". Your position is so strong that you really do not need to hide.

What Now for Stopecg? We remain, the job is not yet done, the ECG may appeal, and f they lose they can re-open in a years time, also, there are other copycat scams out there that are still bringing misery to thousands. Please keep checking back!

With T&T liqudated and The ECG closed it has been a good couple of weeks, long may this continue!

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