Quick Loans v Easy Group – Legal Funding Easy Victims

Quick Loans has recently become the recipient of a legal claim from Easy Group (Stelios), demanding we cease using the name EasyLoans.co.uk and hand it to them.

We firmly reject such claims and will now offer to fund the defence of similar victims of the “Easy” grab.

Background

In November 2016, we received a letter from Easy Group in which they said that the rights to the domain name EasyLoans.co.uk belong to Easy Group. That is despite us owning and operating the brand name since 2011. Easy Loans is a brand owned and operated by Quick Loans Ltd.

We won’t go into much detail about their claim because it is currently ongoing, but in our first reply to them, we told them that we disagreed with their claim and considered the matter closed. We also advised them that if they persisted, we would have to instruct legal Counsel to incur costs. They could have left it there; unfortunately, Easy Group came back and now it looks like they want a bit of a battle with us.

Financial Bullying

We are aware of Easy Group’s history with threatening domain owners with substantial legal costs; it seems to go all the way back to the early 2000s with names like EasyPizza.co.uk. Their legal claims don’t seem to have had much success when claims have proceeded to court. They appear to have been admonished by the Court system for attempting to claim all references to the word “Easy”. Which begs the question; just what are they trying on here with all these legal claims?

After doing some research from various online sources, Easy Group appears to have the reputation of being bullies. Claims that they bully legitimate domain owners who have incorporated the word “Easy” somewhere in their domain name. Intimidating them into handing over the name to avoid crippling legal costs, regardless of actual wrongdoing.

We have seen nothing online that leads us to say that these claims of financial bullying are wrong. For example, they could have had a string of legal wins that proved their claims, there aren’t any of those, and we have checked. There is a cheaper alternative to domain name disputes. Nominet runs a Dispute Resolution Service service that has a highly respected reputation for fairness and costs just £750 for Easy Group to make a claim. If they win, Nominet will hand the domain name to them. The trouble with this is that Easy Group cannot hit Defendant with costs, so that cost intimidation won’t work here. Easy Group would have to stand on the merits of their claim. We can’t find a single case of Easy Group ever filing a claim with Nominet. This is what makes us think that the claims of them being bullies are correct.

If bullying and cost intimidation is their real aim, it would appear to fit what is going on. Even to reply to one of their legal letters in the correct legal format will cost thousands; that’s before it even goes to court. You can see why someone struggling to fund a business may have no choice but to be pragmatic and hand them their name rather than get into a battle that could cost them their house.

Now, if there is one thing that we jolly well dislike - it is bullies. If Easy Group is bullying innocent members of the public, we aim to level the playing field here. Unfortunately for Easy Group, they have chosen to take on a finance company that has the funds to defend itself and defend other people.

Funding

We are offering to fund the defence of those legitimate users that receive legal letters from Easy Group. Through something called a CFA or similar agreement. Quick Loans Ltd will support the defence of legitimate users of the word “Easy”.

Why are we doing this?

We have several aims here; we can make money when our clients win in court. The Conditional Fee Agreement is a process that allows significant returns for funders of legal defences. We can make up to 100% on our investments.

The second aim is to make Easy Group think again, these legal letters they are handing out are no longer a joke. They cause significant damage to legitimate businesses that must divert funds from staying afloat into battling spurious legal claims.

They will now have a significant risk for Easy Group; this time, their claims may result in court action. Defendants who have cost-free quality defences put together by a highly competent legal foe will pursue Easy Group for costs when they cease their claims.

We are also interested in getting a better view of what is going on here. Is Easy Group trying this across a more comprehensive range than people know about? If they are, we will reserve our rights to request that a court adds them to a list of vexatious claimants.

What we are not doing!

We are not doing this to hurt Easy Group; we respect their rights to a brand. Where they have legitimate concerns that their rights are being infringed, they should, of course, have full legal redress.

We have no interest in funding someone running a name like EasyJetss.co.uk and has an orange background with Easy Group’s font.

We will only fund the legal defences of those who have legitimate use of the name. That will be in the opinion of our legal counsel who will give us his assessment of the situation on application.

Interested? 

If you have received a legal letter from Easy Group or their representatives and wish to receive funding for your legal claim, please use the contact us option to get in touch with us.