Advertising Online (failing with monster.co.uk)
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Consultant at NIL
10 September 2003 09:18am
After a trail period of recruitment advertising where my client got some great results, Monster offered an excellent annual package deal for 300 more positions. Based on the performance of the trial period further adverrtiising slots were bought and paid for in advance.
However a few months down the line - the response to advertising is next to nil and Monster will not consider a refund. Either they are in trouble and not admitting it or my client is re very very unlucky, My feeling is that their traffic levels and interets in Monster are falling heavily.
Question is - what is the legal position and how can my clent get a partial refund?
Researcher at Econsultancy
10 September 2003 12:40pm
While I can't offer any advice on how to get a refund from Monster, it may be worth noting that monster.com.au (the Australian version) shut their doors in August 2003. See the following news story for more information:
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6861815%255E15318,00.html
(you may need to copy the link manually to make it work)
Any refund negotiations will depend on the small print of your agreements with Monster. (Were there any performance guarantees?) Perhaps someone else can offer you advice on that side of things.
Partner at White & Case LLP
22 September 2003 15:42pm
This forum certainly can help you decipher the small print if you can let us know what your client signed up to. However, even without seeing the contract, if monster.co.uk used high quality lawyers then I am happy to make a prediction that your client will have very limited recourse to Monster.co.uk.
Key parts of the agreement to check for:
1) promises to deliver a certain degree of performance;
2) an "entire agreement" clause - ie one which says that the client's entire agreement with monster.co.uk is just those terms which are set out in the contract. Suppliers use these sorts of clauses to ensure that vague marketing type promises don't become enforceable parts of the deal; and
3) the type of limit of liability clause which your client and monster.co.uk have agreed to.
As your client enjoyed a trial period which appeared successful and then paid for a further period which was dramatically unsuccessful then there may be some further claims which your client could make especially if they can show that the poor performance during the second period is not just the result of a general decline in interest in monster.co.uk. You/your client will need to do some investigating to be able to progress this route further - but before you even do that I would check the contract first.
Ashley Winton
(Disclaimer: I am a lawyer, but the above is not legal advice and you may not rely upon it or republish it without my express consent.)
Consultant at NIL
22 September 2003 15:50pm
Thanks for the advice. Always useful. Looks like my client will get nothing back!
K Singh.
On 15:42:00 22 September 2003 Ashley Winton wrote:
>This forum certainly can help you decipher the small print
>if you can let us know what your client signed up to.
>However, even without seeing the contract, if
>monster.co.uk used high quality lawyers then I am happy to
>make a prediction that your client will have very limited
>recourse to Monster.co.uk.
>
>Key parts of the agreement to check for:
>
>1) promises to deliver a certain degree of performance;
>2) an "entire agreement" clause - ie one which
>says that the client's entire agreement with monster.co.uk
>is just those terms which are set out in the contract.
>Suppliers use these sorts of clauses to ensure that vague
>marketing type promises don't become enforceable parts of
>the deal; and
>3) the type of limit of liability clause which your client
>and monster.co.uk have agreed to.
>
>As your client enjoyed a trial period which appeared
>successful and then paid for a further period which was
>dramatically unsuccessful then there may be some further
>claims which your client could make especially if they can
>show that the poor performance during the second period is
>not just the result of a general decline in interest in
>monster.co.uk. You/your client will need to do some
>investigating to be able to progress this route further -
>but before you even do that I would check the contract
>first.
>
>Ashley Winton
>
>(Disclaimer: I am a lawyer, but the above is not legal
>advice and you may not rely upon it or republish it
>without my express consent.)