The European Consumer Centre Finland continues to receive a great deal of complaints from consumers about Finnish-language online services offering car valuations under several different domains. In addition, similar new services continue to be launched frequently. In their complaints, consumers talk about being misled about the nature of the service and how they have received unexpected invoices. Consumers have also received payment reminders from the company threatening them with collection or court proceedings, or even both. If a consumer receives a groundless invoice, they only need to submit a single complaint to the company. Any groundless payment reminders sent by these companies can be ignored, and there is no need to report them to the European Consumer Centre.
Since the beginning of the year 2024, the ECC Finland has received nearly 150 complaints from consumers about Datatech SIA, a company from Latvia that owns at least the following websites: Autoasihinta.fi, Autotiedot.fi, and Autobase.fi. In December 2023, we published guidelines for consumers about these sites.
Between January and March 2024, we have also received individual complaints about the websites owned by the company Quotent, which operates Autoarviointi.fi, Autoluokitus.com, and Autoluokituss.com. We have not been able to determine the exact location of this company. We first wrote about this company in August 2022, when it was operating under the name Quotient.
The related cases were not resolved in mediation, as the companies did not take part in the proceedings or respond to any queries by the ECCs. Participation in mediation is voluntary for businesses, and the European Consumer Centres cannot force companies to act in a certain way.
Our instructions to consumers: you do not need to pay any groundless invoices, and contact the European Consumer Centre only when necessary
- Do not pay a groundless invoice: An invoice is groundless when, for example, a service has been advertised as being free of charge, or the company has given false information about your right to cancel the service. Even if there is no payment obligation, the invoice should be contested by notifying the company in writing. Remember that you only need to submit one complaint to the company.
- Ignore any payment reminders: If the invoice was groundless, you do not need to respond to any payment reminders – the company is simply trying to lead you into paying the invoice. As long as you have contested the invoice once, you can continue to ignore these reminders. There is no need to contact the European Consumer Centre about payment reminders, as they will eventually cease to be sent.
- Ignore the threatening tone of these letters: The payment reminders you receive may contain specific threats about debt collection or court proceedings. While this may sound frightening, remember that it is a deliberate attempt at pressuring you into paying the invoice. So far, no consumer has informed us that their car evaluation case has progressed to any debt collection or court proceedings.
- Contact the European Consumer Centre only if you are contacted directly by a debt collection agency or court of law. However, it remains unlikely that you will be contacted by a collection agency or court. Please also note that even if a company submits a claim that has been titled as a collection letter or contains references to specific debt collection costs, this does not mean that the matter has actually been transferred for collection.