Eurocopy And The Law Society

EDM number 1142 in 1990-91, proposed by Nigel Griffiths on 16/07/1991.

That this House congratulates the Law Society of Scotland for unanimously rejecting a complaint by Eurocopy plc against Mr Tom Marshall of the Eurocopy Complainers Advisory Group; recognises that this complaint was lodged by Eurocopy to intimidate solicitors who are successfully representing victims of Eurocopy's dishonest contracts and to stifle debate of its deplorable business methods; further notes that many clients of Equipu and Purdie and Kirkpatrick received a satisfactory service prior to being taken over by Eurocopy who sent sales staff to entrap clients into signing extortionate contracts, including terms such as leases misrepresented as service agreements, nine year service contracts misrepresented as 18 month contracts, high charges for toner and parts after 18 months, the automatic addition of 15 per cent. p.a. for 'inflation' and the addition of a year on the end of all contracts; condemns the fraudulent alteration of contracts by Eurocopy; notes that these practices have harmed businesses, health authorities, schools and charities and calls on Eurocopy to admit to the malpractices they are responsible for and void all contracts which contain these misleading terms and compensate all victims of their disreputable contracts and sales practices; welcomes the investigation by the Director General of Fair Trading into Eurocopy and other photocopy companies; calls on the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to investigate the practices of Eurocopy and Cyril Gay, and of the finance companies colluding with malpractice, Eurocopy Rentals, Anglo Leasing and Mercantile Credit; and requests photocopier companies Richo and Mita to examine the contracts supplied with their machines.

This motion has been signed by a total of 31 MPs.