Legal advice: Am I in the right?

Questioner

Dear reader, I would like to use the legal advice service. I have been a member of the arts association for a number of years. This concerns the following topic: In the advertisement of the company Hydrodermal, a free trial package is offered. I paid 6.95 shipping costs. An amount of €59.95 has been debited from my account without my permission. Only later did I read that if you do not indicate that you no longer wish to make purchases, new products will be sent automatically. I have refunded the amount and blocked the company's direct debit on my account. I contacted this company. Their answer was that I had not responded to emails they sent me afterwards asking for some kind of repeat/subscription. These emails ended up in my Spam box and remained unopened. If you do not respond to these emails, you will unknowingly receive this product again, I read from other people who have had the same experience with this company. I have not received that product yet. It seems to me that if you are offered a product just to test it, you should decide for yourself whether you want to proceed with it. The advertisement misleads people. My question is am I within my rights if I do not pay. And can a company just take money from my account. What would you recommend I do? Greeting

Lawyer

If the intention was that you would only receive a free trial package to decide later whether to continue, then you are within your rights and I would not pay. The company should also have informed you of the conditions in advance or you should have given your approval. If this did not happen, then you are within your rights. The company is also not allowed to simply debit money from your account. I advise you to file a complaint in writing and indicate that you will not pay except for the trial package. If you cannot (yet) reach an agreement, then I will look into your case.

Questioner

Thank you for your answer, I have already indicated that I do not want to pay. Below you can read the answer. Complaints are also filed with the consumer association. https://www.klachtenkompas.nl/bedrijf/hydrodermal/details?companyId=424350e0-a2df-422f-9e09-1170ecbada3c I have not received any further response. How nice that you want to take a look. Kind regards, Dear Thank you for your email. ​ On 23-02-2019 at 20:25 you requested a trial package against payment of the shipping costs (€6.95). ​ On 23-02-2019 at 20:25 you received a confirmation email. The confirmation email contains your customer details, your order details and the terms and conditions of the campaign explained to you in brief. We have informed you sufficiently by means of the confirmation email. ​ To save you the trouble of searching for the confirmation email, I have added the contents of the terms and conditions in brief below: ​ The free trial promotion in brief: 1: The trial package contains a month's supply of Hydrodermal (30ML) which you can try for free during the 14-day inspection period. 2: If you are not satisfied with the product, you must unsubscribe from the service online via the online customer portal or via customer service and return the product before the expiry of the cooling-off period. 3: Do you like the product? Then you don't have to do anything. After the inspection period has expired, the purchase is final. The costs of the product (€59.95) are automatically collected. ​After the cooling-off period has expired, your purchase is final, the product costs will be charged and the package no longer needs to be returned. The outstanding amount is from the trial package. If you did not agree with the terms and conditions, you could still have cancelled the order using the customer portal. Hoping to have informed you sufficiently. Yours sincerely, Hydrodermal Customer Service

Lawyer

The conditions must have been provided to you in advance or your approval is required after reading and saving them on your PC. This has not happened according to the email and you can claim that you have not given your approval and therefore will not pay. If the company persists, you can contact me directly for help if you wish. This help is then unfortunately no longer free of charge.

Questioner

Thank you for your answer, I have already indicated that I do not want to pay. Below you can read the answer. Complaints are also filed with the consumer association. https://www.klachtenkompas.nl/bedrijf/hydrodermal/details?companyId=424350e0-a2df-422f-9e09-1170ecbada3c I have not received any further response. How nice that you want to take a look. Kind regards, Thank you for your email. ​ On 23-02-2019 at 20:25 you requested a trial package against payment of the shipping costs (€6.95). ​ On 23-02-2019 at 20:25 you received a confirmation email. The confirmation email contains your customer details, your order details and the terms and conditions of the campaign explained to you in brief. We have informed you sufficiently by means of the confirmation email. ​ To save you the trouble of searching for the confirmation email, I have added the contents of the terms and conditions in brief below: ​ The free trial promotion in brief: 1: The trial package contains a month's supply of Hydrodermal (30ML) which you can try for free during the 14-day inspection period. 2: If you are not satisfied with the product, you must unsubscribe from the service online via the online customer portal or via customer service and return the product before the expiry of the cooling-off period. 3: Do you like the product? Then you don't have to do anything. After the inspection period has expired, the purchase is final. The costs of the product (€59.95) are automatically collected. ​After the cooling-off period has expired, your purchase is final, the product costs will be charged and the package no longer needs to be returned. The outstanding amount is from the trial package. If you did not agree with the terms and conditions, you could still have cancelled the order using the customer portal. Hoping to have informed you sufficiently. Yours sincerely, Hydrodermal Customer Service

Questioner

Dear Sir/Madam, I don't quite understand your answer. The email from Hydrodermal stated that if I had not agreed with the terms and conditions, I would have had to cancel the order using the customer portal. I did not open those emails and therefore did not reply. But am I in the right or not? That is not clear to me now. Kind regards

Lawyer

In principle, you are in the right. If the email clearly shows that you have been able to take note of the conditions and must give your approval before the purchase is final, then the company has a point. If you have not opened the emails, then you can be blamed for this. However, the way this company acts to confirm the agreements in an email afterwards is dubious. This means that you are not obliged to pay.