Any solicitors on here?

[hackmax]

Got a friend with an interesting dispute (detail not important) but the company in question have in there terms something along the lines of:

"This Agreement and any dispute between you and the Company arising out of your use of the Website or Service shall be governed by the laws of the Isle of Man, and no other laws, and shall be exclusively settled by means of binding arbitration / mediation using a neutral arbitrator (not a judge or jury)" and they list a load of shit.

How legally binding is this? Could such a term make them "above the law" as such?

To my mind no T&C should be legally able to rule out your legal rights or make them immune to the orders of a UK judge (the isle of man is still UK Jurisdiction) subject to a few limits (I found this: out of jurisdiction | MoneyClaimsUK)

Any thoughts on this from legal experts?

 

[Mick]

I always think when companies have certain terms and conditions are they written to defend the company against potential unfounded claims, or are they written to get out of jail.

I do not know much about the law and T&C's, but thought if you bought a service or product in the uk the standards would fall under the uk laws, let's say something caused a fire... how could the Isle of Man arbitrator find a solution to this problem.

Good luck to your friend seems an odd one.

 

[JonMMM]

Isle of Man is a tax haven which is why a lot of business is carried out from there, I would have thought though if they are doing business in the UK they would have to obey UK laws.

So really when you say the details are not important they really are for instance if they brought a timeshare in Spain

 

[hackmax]

I guess the question here not a case of jurisdiction - I think UK courts would have still have power in this case. I've had a few more details from the friend in question and his real concern is that they state that legal option is not an option at all.

Way I see it if this was legal, then any company could use that clause - which would deem the purpose of the courts useless.

I am sure also they are not based in the Isle of Man and this is just a tax haven and a way to try to avoid some legal claims. It will be some bent accountants office. Would make legal action more challenging because any enforcement would not be easy against an effectively empty address which probably has hundreds of companies registered at.