Quick Loans v Easy Group – Legal Funding Easy Victims

Quick Loans Ltd has recently become the recipient of a legal claim from Easy Group, demanding we cease and desist using the name EasyLoans.co.uk and hand it to them. We strongly 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 basically said that the rights to the domain name EasyLoans.co.uk belongs to Easy Group. That is despite us owning and operating the name since 2011. Easy Loans is a brand owned and operated by Quick Loans Ltd.

Now we won’t go into much detail about their claim with us because it is currently ongoing, but in our first reply to them we told them that we disagreed with the claim and considered the matter closed. We also advised them that if they persisted then we would have to instruct legal counsel and that would 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 huge legal costs; it seems to go all the way back to the early 2000’s with names like EasyPizza.co.uk. Their legal claims don’t seem to have had much, if any, success when claims have proceeded to court. In fact 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 appear 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 just to avoid crippling legal costs, regardless of actual wrong doing.

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. In fact there is a cheaper alternative to domain name disputes, Nominet run a service called a Dispute Resolution Service which 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 the Defendant with costs, so 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 costs thousands, that’s before it even goes to court. You can see why someone who is struggling to fund a business may have no choice but to just 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 are 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 who not only has the funds to defend itself, but to defend other people too.

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 fund 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 who must divert funds from staying afloat into battling spurious legal claims.

Well now they will have significant risk for Easy Group too, this time their claims may actually result in court action, defendants who have cost free quality defences put together by a highly competent legal foe that 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 wider range than people really 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 are respectful of 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 who is 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.