Claim against "wrong" Amazon company in Small Claims Court

[GWUK12]

Hello, was wondering if anyone would be able to give any advice.

Up until the end of last year, I was selling on the Amazon UK marketplace as a part-time sole trader. Over the busy festive period I contracted covid, was unable to post orders as quickly as Amazon requires, and my account was suspended, with all my selling funds on hold for 90 days.

180 days later Amazon had still not released the funds to me and has not replied to my attempts to contact them, so I started a claim through the Gov.UK online money claim portal.

Amazon have now submitted their defence which essentially boils down to the fact that I am claiming against the wrong Amazon company:

"It is assumed that the Claimant intended to issue proceedings against ‘Amazon UK Services Ltd’ (“AUK”) as this is the company upon which the proceedings were served. As such, it is AUK that is responding to the claim and will be the Defendant for the purposes of this Defence.

3. To assist the Court, the UK Amazon store (the “Store”) is owned and operated by Amazon Europe Core Sàrl (“AEC”). Third-party selling partner programmes and services, including the marketplace service (the “Marketplace”), on the Store are operated by Amazon Services Europe Sàrl (“ASE”). Amazon EU Sàrl (“AEU”) and Amazon Media EU Sàrl (“AMEU”), respectively, are the sellers of record of physical products and digital products and services sold on the Store, except where such products or services are sold by third-party selling partners. AUK is a company registered in England and Wales which provides services to the Amazon companies referred to above.

4. Amazon Payments Europe S.C.A. (société en commandite par actions), a partnership limited by shares, registered in Luxembourg, Registration Number (RCS Luxembourg) B 153 265, authorised by the Commission de Surveillance du bir_lit\8620110\2 2 1 June 2022 holtth Secteur Financier as an Electronic Money Issuer (licence number 36/10) (“APE”), holds payment accounts for each seller that has a seller account into which proceeds from the seller’s sales activity on the Marketplace are credited.

5. On 10 December 2018, Amazon Payments UK Limited (“APUK”) replaced APE as the payments service provider in respect of all sales on the UK marketplace. APUK is a company registered in England and Wales.

6. The Claim Form was addressed to ‘Amazon Services UK Ltd’ as Defendant but served upon AUK. Neither the Defendant as named in the Claim Form nor AUK is the correct defendant to this claim.

7. To assist the Court, information has been obtained by AUK from ASE, APE and APUK. ASE, APE and APUK provide the information set out herein, unless otherwise stated."

My understanding of the above is that I should not have brought proceedings against AUK, but instead APUK, who are the company who process payments from products sold on the Amazon UK marketplace, operated by AEC. AUK, APUK and AEC are all registered at the same London address.

Is it worth pursuing this case or should I start over again, claiming against APUK? Is there a way to change the claim now before a court hearing so that it is issued to APUK instead of AUK?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

How much is the claim for?

 

[GWUK12]

How much is the claim for?

Just under £1000, so not a massive amount of money

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Out of principle, I would probably keep going, however, I am a stubborn fool!

You need to balance out the value of the claim against the cost of chasing it, in money, time and stress.

 

[AlanJ1]

Have you emailed there disbursements email address?
You have indeed as stated claimed against the wrong company. No point chasing this as it won't work, many stories online about this.
99/100 times if you claim against the right company and Amazon do owe you the money they will pay before it goes to court it just takes the court proceedings to be correct for them to actually pay it.

I would personally file against the correct company and see what transpires.

 

[GWUK12]

Have you emailed there disbursements email address?
You have indeed as stated claimed against the wrong company. No point chasing this as it won't work, many stories online about this.
99/100 times if you claim against the right company and Amazon do owe you the money they will pay before it goes to court it just takes the court proceedings to be correct for them to actually pay it.

I would personally file against the correct company and see what transpires.

Thanks for the advice Alan.

Is there any way to change the current claim to the correct business name so that I do not have to pay the court application fee again, or do I just have to cancel the claim in its entirety and start from scratch again?

 

[AlanJ1]

Thanks for the advice Alan.

Is there any way to change the current claim to the correct business name so that I do not have to pay the court application fee again, or do I just have to cancel the claim in its entirety and start from scratch again?

Not a clue, not something I know anything about unfortunately.

 

[Newchodge]

Thanks for the advice Alan.

Is there any way to change the current claim to the correct business name so that I do not have to pay the court application fee again, or do I just have to cancel the claim in its entirety and start from scratch again?

@smallclaimsassistance may be able to help, but I believe it would be a simple process to request that the correct company be added to the claim, especially as the other side has already identified the correct company.

 

[japancool]

Can you claim against a foreign company, if they supposedly don't have any assets or base in the UK?

 

[GWUK12]

Can you claim against a foreign company, if they supposedly don't have any assets or base in the UK?

Both Amazon UK Services Ltd (“AUK”) and Amazon Payments UK Limited (“APUK”) are registered companies in England and Wales with a London-based registered business address.

 

[UKSBD]

If you claim against a company wrongly and they pass it on to their legal department, can that company come after you to cover their expenses for your mistake?

 

[GWUK12]

Does anyone have any insight into whether I'd need to start the claim again against Amazon, or is it possible to change the name of the company on the current claim?

 

[el_gordo]

Why not list the correct company as a second defendant? Your exposure to costs is limited as your claim is below the £10k threshold.

 

[Gyumri]

The rules about making a court claim

The Civil Procedure Rules and the Practice Direction on pre-action conduct are outlines. These must be followed if you take your consumer case to court.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk

You can change the defendant's name. Look up the CPR on Google for substituting another party.

Now that you know which is the right party I would do as suggested and write again to them to complain and demand your money to be returned within seven days. Follow the pre-action protocol required for making small claims in the link above if you need to start turning the screw.

 

[Gyumri]

I think you must give 14 days but in any case you should follow the protocol before starting the claim to give them a chance to cough up or at least explain their position.

 

[smallclaimsassistance]

Sorry I am late to this. It depends on the specific circumstances of the case and the manner in which the case has been pleaded.

The easiest way is to discontinue against the first defendant and issue against the correct defendant. Provided there is no or limited costs risk, this is the most effective way, even if you do have to swallow another issue fee.

If there is likely to be a claim for legal fees from the wrongly accused defendant, the best way of doing this is to make a formal application for substitution.

Adding the correct defendant as a second defendant, when you have evidence suggesting that the first defendant doesn’t belong in the case, is asking for a wasted costs order against you, even in a small claim.

I would strongly recommend that you put this in the hands of a lawyer (not me, my “hands” are full right now), as there are other issues involved with this that may need to be dealt with, not only the defendant’s identity, but also jurisdiction, which may also be an issue.

Dean

 

[2020Lawyer2020]

For a £1k cl;aim ( a small claim where neither side can claim legal costs) continue to handle this yourself. As someone said above the Civil procedure rules will give you your answers and as someone else said either it will be a case of applying to the court for permission to change the defendant(s) or starting the case again (and losing the court fee you already paid). May be simpler to start it all over again with the correct co. If any of those you are suing are abroad then service out of the jurisdiction is complex however.

 

[Smithco]

Amazon have now submitted their defence which essentially boils down to the fact that I am claiming against the wrong Amazon company:

"It is assumed that the Claimant intended to issue proceedings against ‘Amazon UK Services Ltd’ (“AUK”) as this is the company upon which the proceedings were served. As such, it is AUK that is responding to the claim and will be the Defendant for the purposes of this Defence.

3. To assist the Court, the UK Amazon store (the “Store”) is owned and operated by Amazon Europe Core Sàrl (“AEC”). Third-party selling partner programmes and services, including the marketplace service (the “Marketplace”), on the Store are operated by Amazon Services Europe Sàrl (“ASE”). Amazon EU Sàrl (“AEU”) and Amazon Media EU Sàrl (“AMEU”), respectively, are the sellers of record of physical products and digital products and services sold on the Store, except where such products or services are sold by third-party selling partners. AUK is a company registered in England and Wales which provides services to the Amazon companies referred to above.

4. Amazon Payments Europe S.C.A. (société en commandite par actions), a partnership limited by shares, registered in Luxembourg, Registration Number (RCS Luxembourg) B 153 265, authorised by the Commission de Surveillance du bir_lit\8620110\2 2 1 June 2022 holtth Secteur Financier as an Electronic Money Issuer (licence number 36/10) (“APE”), holds payment accounts for each seller that has a seller account into which proceeds from the seller’s sales activity on the Marketplace are credited.

5. On 10 December 2018, Amazon Payments UK Limited (“APUK”) replaced APE as the payments service provider in respect of all sales on the UK marketplace. APUK is a company registered in England and Wales.

6. The Claim Form was addressed to ‘Amazon Services UK Ltd’ as Defendant but served upon AUK. Neither the Defendant as named in the Claim Form nor AUK is the correct defendant to this claim.

7. To assist the Court, information has been obtained by AUK from ASE, APE and APUK. ASE, APE and APUK provide the information set out herein, unless otherwise stated."

I too am looking for the correct entity to sue Amazon in the UK. They ignored my 'Notice Before Action' letter as I see now I used the wrong entity too. So before I issue I need to be sure of the entity as it seems that is an easy wriggle out for them.

When you ask them, they won't reply or clarify.

I found a High Court action where they used several defendants, presumably to get around this. It was worded further in the papers thus:

The Defendants (collectively “Amazon”) are all members of the well-known group of companies that operate e-commerce websites. For the purposes of this case, the relevant Amazon websites are: (i) the website at www.amazon.com (described by Amazon as the US website); (ii) the UK website at www.amazon.co.uk; and (iii) the German website at www.amazon.de.

For a UK action, I am looking at joint defendants thus:

Amazon Services Europe Sàrl, Amazon Europe Core Sàrl, Amazon EU Sàrl, Amazon EU EU Sàrl (UK Branch), and Amazon UK Services Ltd.

However, some of those are registered in Luxembourg, so I am wondering if they will try and wriggle out of that by claiming the London address isn't the correct address for service? Naturally, I want to use the UK County Courts.

Does anyone else have experience of this?

 

[Smithco]

I know this is an old topic, but its one I am researching, so for the benefit of others, there is a full ABC of how to sue Amazon in the UK here.

 

[bodgitt&scarperLTD]

I know this is an old topic, but its one I am researching, so for the benefit of others, there is a full ABC of how to sue Amazon in the UK here.

Bloody hell! That's comprehensive. Good find.

Unbelievable the lengths Amazon go to.