Mrs S from the UK contacted us at the UK ECC on behalf of her friend, Mrs M.  Mrs M entered into a holiday club contract whilst in Malta.  Unfortunately Mrs M had recently been diagnosed with Demetia and it was unlikely she had the ability to enter into such a complex contract.  Mrs S tried to cancel the contract on behalf of her friend but this request was declined as there was no cooling off period within the terms and conditions.

We provided Mrs S some advice about these types of contracts and although we decided that there was no cooling off period required by law we decided to chance our arm by using a medical reason to cancel the contract.

We shared the case with our colleagues at ECC Malta and they contacted the trader on behalf of Mrs M.  They stated that there was a duty of care on the company to make sure that consumers are able to make an informed decision about entering into one of their contracts.  The company responded and although they didn't agree that there had been any high pressure sales techniques used they did agree to cancel the contract as an exceptional circumstance.  They refunded Mrs M in full.