It has been reported that the National Consumer Commission (NCC) was forced to withdraw a substantial case earlier this month on technical grounds.
The case in questions was against the Univision holiday club group but the understanding is that the grounds in which this case were withdrawn, could effect a separate case.
This withdrawal is suspected to to be a huge step back for the NCC who stated that the withdrawal of the case was “very, very disappointing”, especially to the many members of the holiday clubs who had complained about their practices.
The withdrawal will come as a nasty blow to the many consumers who have been waiting over two years for relief from the tribunal process.
The representatives raised technical issues which the senior counsel agreed required the withdrawal of the case. One of the issues related to the commission’s request for the tribunal’s ruling to have national application when it had not listed each and every time-share company to which it would apply.
The commission has been investigating the holiday points schemes for about two years and brought the case before the tribunal on the grounds of misselling, illegal terms of in-perpetuity contracts and the oversubscription for the holiday resorts which allegedly had insufficient accommodation to cater for members’ demand.
Mr Mohamed stressed that the withdrawal of the case before the tribunal on technical grounds did not extinguish the substantively strong case against Univision which could be brought before the High Court. This would have to be done in the correct format. “This is not the end of the matter.”
It is being reported that Univision has applied for costs and together with other holiday clubs is considering suing the commission for damages arising from the negative publicity flowing from “ill-founded and reckless comments and statements by members of the commission”.
Univision spokesman John Meyer said the application for costs was based on “the vexatious and frivolous nature” of the commission’s application. He said the Univision group believed the commission’s application was “ill-founded, devoid of substance, legally flawed, and lacked the most basic requirements for an application of this nature”.
The tribunal has reserved judgment on the application for costs.
Hopefully the NCC will respond to this set back with a strong plan of action and will eventually gain the justice deserved by the Consumers.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk