Newsroom

OFT stops misleading claims by Dutch family tree publisher

128/05    20 July 2005

The OFT has stopped the misleading claims and practices of a Dutch genealogist who claimed to produce individualised family trees for UK consumers with unusual family names.

In the latest instance of the OFT using its cross border powers (see note 1), it has obtained undertakings from Historique, trading as William Pince Publishers, and the company's sole director Wilhelmus Pince Van der Aa that they will not mislead UK consumers and will abide by distance selling laws.

The OFT acted after receiving a number of complaints that the company had supplied blank charts and little specific information, after claiming it had completed a detailed study and family tree of the recipient's name. Consumers also complained of delayed delivery, failure to deliver at all, and that the company did not provide the required 'cooling off' period or cancellation information (see note 2).

William Pince Publishers approached consumers with unusual family names. Unsolicited mailings to consumers gave the impression that the company had completed research specifically into the recipient's family history and that the compilations were rigorously researched from rare sources.

The undertakings mean that the company and Mr Pince have agreed in future not to make any misleading claims that:

• the consumer's name dates back several centuries when there is no evidence for this
• the genealogical books are published individually to the customer's order and cannot be revoked or returned
• the family tree poster is printed on specially crafted paper and allows the family line to be traced back for numerous generations, when it is blank and has to be filled in by the consumer
• a new data source has been discovered containing valuable information about the family name
• the company has carried out intensive genealogical research into an individual consumer's family name over the last few decades, where this is not the case.

The company and Mr Pince have also agreed not to breach the UK Distance Selling Regulations which protect consumers' rights when buying goods or services over the internet, by phone or by mail order.

If any of the undertakings are breached the OFT could seek a court injunction and may request a substantial fine as the penalty.

Sir John Vickers, OFT Chairman, said:

'This is another example of the OFT using its cross border powers to protect UK consumers. The claims made by this company were false and misled people into thinking that a study had been conducted into their family background and history. What they received fell far short of this and on occasion the consumer received nothing at all.'

NOTES

1. The OFT has previously taken cross border action in Europe against Belgian company D Duchesne SA, trading as TV Direct Distribution and Just 4 You in the UK. The OFT took the company to court In Belgium to stop it sending misleading unsolicited mailings to UK consumers after it refused to sign undertakings (see press release 63/04). The Belgian court ruled in the OFT's favour preventing D Duchesne SA from sending any further misleading mailings to consumers in the UK (see press release 208/04). The OFT is currently defending this decision in appeal proceedings.
 
2. The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, commonly referred to as the Distance Selling Regulations (DSRs) came into force on 31 October 2000 giving additional rights to consumers in the area of home shopping. Under the DSRs consumers have additional rights including rights to: clear information on the identity of the supplier, what they are buying; such as a description of the product that is being bought, the quantity, price and delivery details and a cancellation period which starts, in respect of goods, when the order is placed and runs until the expiry of seven working days commencing the day after either the date of receipt of goods or when the consumer received certain written information. The DSRs provide that consumers who receive unsolicited goods or services have no obligations to pay for them.

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