- Help! I signed a contract mailed from Switzerland (Med1web)
- Help! I signed a contract mailed from Portugal (Med1web or TEMDI)
- I have not signed anything but have recieved a contract and want to know what I should do
Help! I signed a contract mailed from Switzerland
If you signed in error, a contract mailed from Switzerland please follow the advice below.
Important letter you should write to United
According To the Swiss Embassy in London (on a page titled UNFAIR PRACTICES VIA SWITZERLAND (Removed in overhaul of the website, early 2008) Art. 23 of the Swiss Code gives you a getout clause if your dispute is less than a year old.
|
If someone has been deceived into concluding a contract by NovaChannel AG, he/she can challenge the contract by writing a letter to the counterpart within a year of discovering the error, stating that he/she has been deceived and that he/she considers therefore the contract to be invalid. The contract is then considered to be annulled (Art. 23 of the Swiss Code of Obligations); the consequence being that there are no outstanding obligations of any kind. If a debt collection company or another representative of the counterpart should insist on paying the money, the debt collection company respectively the representative of the counterpart should also be informed that the contract has been annulled. Attention is drawn to the fact that only the civil judge is in a position to definitely state whether the challenged contract is really invalid if the party insisting on the validity of the contract chooses to initiate civil proceedings. Old notes on this (Last updated 11th Jan 05) |
What Does This Mean?
Put Simply, You should write to United Directories quoting Art. 23 of the Swiss Code of Obligations a stating that it is less than one year since you realised you were fooled by the wording of the contract into signing a document and that you would not have signed were it more clearly laid out. As such you are challenging the valitdity of the contract and it must be considered to be null and void.
In addition you may wish point out that the contracts are subject to a criminal investigation in Switzerland and regardless of United's response you intend to withold any payments pending the outcome of the investigation and any court action that follows. If you do this note that your action in witholding payment does not affect your civil rights under Art 23.
Request a response confirming that United understand this and have cancelled your contract
Send By Recorded Delivery
Notes:
- If it is more than a year since you discovered that Novachannel expected you to pay for your entry, this particular law will not assist you. The Date you discovered the problem is most probably the date at which you received your first invoice.
- Any Debt collection companies are also affected by this code, If they contact you, please re-send your original letter to Novachannel.
- IMPORTANT: the last paragraph makes it clear that United could go to a civil judge and dispute their obligation under the code, however stopECG consider this unlikely at the time while Novachannel are under criminal prosecution.
If united write back and continue to demand payment, you should write some letters of complaint:
- Write to the Portuguese Consumer Authorities enclosing copies of ALL your correspondence on the matter. Please ensure that the letter explains that you signed a form mailed from Switzerland but that demands are coming from Portugal.
Address:
Consumidores Mais Protegidos,
Praça Duque de Saldanha, 31 - 3º,
1069 - 013 Lisboa,
Portugal
Tel: 21 356 46 00
Fax: 21 356 47 19
Email: dgc@dg.consumidor.pt (StopECG feels that letters in the post are more effective)
- Tell the Portuguese Police
Again: enclose copies of ALL your correspondence. Please ensure that the letter explains that you signed a form mailed from Switzerland, that the Swiss company which mailed the contract has been raided by the Lucerne police and is not trading but that demands are now coming from Portugal, ask the Portuguese police to liase with their Swiss counterparts.
Polícia de Segurança Pública Portuguesa,
(Policia de Seguranca Publica Portuguesa),
Rua Capelo, 13,
1249-107, LISBOA,
Portugal
Email: contacto@psp.pt (StopECG feels that letters in the post are more effective)
Web: http://www.psp.pt/
- Copy your letters to the Mayor of Lisbon
Pacos do Concelho - Praca do Munícipio,
1º Piso 1100-365,
Lisboa,
Portugal
-
- EU Residents Send the same full dossier of your correspondence to your MEP.
If you do not know who your MEP is, click the one of the links below and look them up. You may find that you are represented by more than one MEP, if so, please contact them all!!
http://www.europarl.eu.int/ ALL EU Countries please navigate to your country
http://www.writetothem.com/ UK Only (enter your postcode, you can then fax direct from the webform!)
http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/MembersMain.htm UK Only (for postal addresses)
- Non EU Residents Send the same full dossier of your correspondence to The EU Commissioner.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
DG Health and Consumer Protection,
B-1049 BRUSSELS,
Belgium
- EU Residents Send the same full dossier of your correspondence to your MEP.
- Complain to the Bank
Banks have legal and moral oblications which may be incompatable with collecting money for the likes of United Directorios. If in the future the activities of United are deemed criminal and banks have failed to act they may share liability. You should write to the bank referenced in any demands and inform them of this. Please enclose copies of all your correspondance with United and any supporting evidence suc as news articles and past criminal cases against similar guides.
You can identify the bank referenced on a demand letter by using the Swift website (simply enter the BIC code)
Bank accounts identified are listed below along with adresses for the bank. If you recieve a demand with a different bank referenced please contact us.
October 2009 (Med1Web)
IBAN PT50 0033 0000 4537 1410 3070 5
BIC: BCOMPTPL
Write to:
Banco Comercial Português, SA,
Pç. D. João I, 28,
Porto - PT 4000-295,
Portugal
December 2009 (TEMDI)
PT50 0018 0003 2015 1296 0201 1
BIC: TOTAPTPL
Write to:
Banco Santander Totta, Sa,
Centro Totta Floor 2 Av. Miguel Bombarda, 4,
1049-058 Lisbon,
Portugal
Help! I signed a contract mailed from Portugal
If you signed in error, a contract mailed from Portugal Please take the following steps:
- Write to the Portuguese Consumer Authorities enclosing copies of ALL your correspondence on the matter. Please ensure that the letter explains that you signed a form mailed from Switzerland but that demands are coming from Portugal.
Address:
Consumidores Mais Protegidos,
Praça Duque de Saldanha, 31 - 3º,
1069 - 013 Lisboa,
Portugal
Tel: 21 356 46 00
Fax: 21 356 47 19
Email: dgc@dg.consumidor.pt (StopECG feels that letters in the post are more effective)
- Tell the Portuguese Police
Again: enclose copies of ALL your correspondence. Please ensure that the letter explains that you signed a form mailed from Switzerland, that the Swiss company which mailed the contract has been raied by the Lucerne police and is not trading but that demands are now coming from Portugal.
Polícia de Segurança Pública Portuguesa,
(Policia de Seguranca Publica Portuguesa),
Rua Capelo, 13,
1249-107, LISBOA,
Portugal
Email: contacto@psp.pt (StopECG feels that letters in the post are more effective)
Web: http://www.psp.pt/
- Copy your letters to the Mayor of Lisbon
Pacos do Concelho - Praca do Munícipio,
1º Piso 1100-365,
Lisboa,
Portugal
- EU Residents Send the same full dossier of your correspondence to your MEP.
If you do not know who your MEP is, click the one of the links below and look them up. You may find that you are represented by more than one MEP, if so, please contact them all!!
http://www.europarl.eu.int/ ALL EU Countries please navigate to your country
http://www.writetothem.com/ UK Only (enter your postcode, you can then fax direct from the webform!)
http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/MembersMain.htm UK Only (for postal addresses)
- Non EU Residents Send the same full dossier of your correspondence to The EU Commissioner.
Meglena Kuneva,
EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
DG Health and Consumer Protection,
B-1049 BRUSSELS,
Belgium
Banks have legal and moral oblications which may be incompatable with collecting money for the likes of United Directorios. If in the future the activities of United are deemed criminal and banks have failed to act they may share liability. You should write to the bank referenced in any demands and inform them of this. Please enclose copies of all your correspondance with United and any supporting evidence suc as news articles and past criminal cases against similar guides.
You can identify the bank referenced on a demand letter by using the Swift website (simply enter the BIC code)
Bank accounts identified are listed below along with adresses for the bank. If you recieve a demand with a different bank referenced please contact us.
October 2009 (Med1Web)
IBAN PT50 0033 0000 4537 1410 3070 5
BIC: BCOMPTPL
Write to:
Banco Comercial Português, SA,
Pç. D. João I, 28,
Porto - PT 4000-295,
Portugal
December 2009 (TEMDI)
PT50 0018 0003 2015 1296 0201 1
BIC: TOTAPTPL
Write to:
Banco Santander Totta, Sa,
Centro Totta Floor 2 Av. Miguel Bombarda, 4,
1049-058 Lisbon,
Portugal
In addition you may wish to follow the General notes below in order to help others who might sign these contracts in error
I have not signed anything but have recieved a contract and want to know what I should do
If you have received a contract you consider misleading and are concerned by this please consider taking one or more of the following steps
- Contact any professional bodies of which you are a member, ask them to publish an advisory to members that signing such a contract infers a cost. Such warnings are more effective if journals publish scans of the contract.
- Contact other Practitioners directly and send them a scan of the contract, this will help forewarn them of the risks. If you have contacts saved in your email address book sending scans of the contract is very easy and effective!
- If you are part of a large organisation such as a hospital the contract distributed internally, a big problem with these documents is that they are often inadvertently signed by junior or temporary staff.
Current Ownership details
UNITED Directorios, Lda
Av. Joao Crisostomo 38c
1050-127 Lisbon
Portugal
Telephone: +351 211 148 777
Fax: +351 211 148 755
Email: info@united.com.pt
Commercial – Register: 508'829'402
VAT - No.: 508'829'402
Notes:
Initially trading as International Medical Information (I.M.I.), Med1web was first established around 2004, no secret was made of the fact that this was a division of Novachannel and the forms were similar to other forms mailed by the parent company, following the standard Lüdenbach style of misleading contract.
Med1web targetted the medical profession, with familiar Novachannel tactics, forms were mass mailed and when a form was signed and returned Novachannel would wait for a protracted period before mailing an advertising proof. Most recipients challenged the contract at this stage only to be told that the cooling off period has expired and they were 'legally bound'. Many refused to pay and their status remains unclear following the sale of the company.
The primary Domain used has been http://www.med1web.com/ The domain was registered to NovaChannel AG and the website was hosted on Novachannels servers. As of Early 2009 the admin for the domain has been shown as 'LDA, UNITED Directorios' with the website hosted in the Azores. Last check Mar 2009
Novachannel also regestered a slew of other domains, the status of which is shown below
http://www.doc2doctor.com/ (Admin Transferred to United Directories - website inaccessible on 14th Mar 2009)
http://www.Med-databank.com/ (Admin Transferred to United Directories - website inaccessible on 14th Mar 2009)
http://www.Med-directories.com/ (Admin Transferred to United Directories - website inaccessible on 14th Mar 2009)
http://www.medoneweb.com/ (Admin Transferred to United Directories - website inaccessible on 14th Mar 2009)
http://www.docsinternational.com/ (Expired, re-regestered Sep 2008 by Zag Media Corp. Who appear to have no association with Novachannel)
http://www.meddirectory.eu/ (regestered to an Italian address website inaccessible on 14th Mar 2009)
http://www.med4web.eu/ (regestered to an Italian address website inaccessible on 14th Mar 2009)
In 2008 Novachannel were condemned to a heavy fine in Italy following a complaint about a misleading Med1web form mailed in 2007
.
| Email Support List If you have been affected by any of the guides featured on StopECG, please join below! |
Discussion and help list, anyone can post, share ideas with others! Use the box below or send a blank email to stoptandt-subscribe@yahoogroups.com |
1 Contract Scans have had personal data removed so as to protect the readers who provided the scans, StopECG reproduces contracts under the terms of ‘Fair Use’ we make them available in order to forewarn thoss who might sign in error when a document arrives in the post and also for legal / journalistic research
