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Be advised, be vigilant, beware in any dealings with
Expo Guide/FairGuide.com/Construct Data Verlag
and other questionable practices
In the past we have provided you with information concerning a scam perpetrated
against exhibitors by FairGuide.com/Construct Data Verlag with their misleading
directory services. Well there is now a new organisation, Expo Guide, which is working
out of Mexico and which is suspiciously similar to FairGuide.
Expo Guide/FairGuide.com/Construct Data Verlag target companies through legitimate
exhibition guides aimed at exhibitors. Their current activities cover companies
throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Expo Guide joins FairGuide in claiming to offer online listing services. They use
a form which resembles an organiser's free catalogue listing service, inviting exhibitors
to complete the form for an entry in an on-line directory. Unsuspecting exhibitors
who sign and return the form are then contracted into a three-year, non-retractable
agreement, which could cost the exhibitor a significant amount of money, with no
foreseeable benefits.
Included in their group is debt collection agency Gravis Inkasso Gmbh and Swiss
debt collection agency Premiumn Recovery AG (a Construct Data subsidiary) which
works in partnership with the various guides to intimidate exhibitors into paying.
These publications have no connection with exhibition organisers or any of their
events. It is important that all companies who are exhibiting are made aware of
this.
We strongly advise our UFI members, all exhibitors and the entire exhibition community,
to be most vigilant against this and similar organisations. These organisations
can cause extreme damage and harm to the reputation of our exhibition industry.
There are many so called guides that mail deceptive contracts and then harass those
who sign them in error for money. However the sheer scale and systematic way in
which these guides attack the credibility of our exhibition industry is outrageous.
So please take the initiative and advise your exhibitors before they are deceived
by these fraudulent practices.
Copies of relevant correspondence on this subject is available by clicking on the
following links:
UFI Legal Counsel advisory notice to Construct Data/FairGuide dated
14 October 2005
Letter from UFI President to the Austrian Bundesminister für Wirtschaft
und Arbeit dated 25 October 2005
Reply to UFI from the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Arbeit
dated 21 December 2005
If approached by Construct Data you should immediately contact your local Austrian
Embassy to provide information concerning problems with this organisation. The Osterreichisches
Patentamt, the Austrian Protective Association against Unfair Competition, and the
Austrian Advertising Council have each taken steps against these misleading practices.
Through the combined efforts and vigilance of us all, we will certainly succeed
in defending the interests of the international exhibition industry - and those
of our clients!
More information is available by clicking on the following links:
AEO Useful Guidance
Messe Bozen against Construct Data (May 2008)
Following work by the Austrian 'Schutzverband gegen unlauteren Wettbewerb' (equivalent
of the Office of Fair Trading), Construct Data signed a further undertaking on 21st
February 2008. Original here (in German)
The settlement in Austria where Fairguide agreed to stop harrassment of
many people who dispute their contracts
Letter from the Federation to prevent Unfair Competition, Vienna
dated November 2006
Letter from the Federation to prevent Unfair Competition, Vienna
dated 15 December 2005
Belgian legal position
FairGuide sample registration form
Financial Times Article
Daily Mirror Article
German Press Information
Presentation of Premium Recovery AG
Actions of StopECG
News
about from Österreichischer Werberat
Alert message from The Swedish Exhibition Centre to Exhibitors
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