In January a lawyer for the Danish Consumer Council, Tina Dhanda, expressed the view that BE2 were acting illegally in taking money for continuing subscriptions. She was also scathing about the "cancellation" process which demands fax or a letter. This is from a Danish media (http://fpn.dk/rettigheder/markedsforing/article2317580.ece) - use Google to convert it into passable English. In 2009 the Finnish Consumer Ombudsman successfully threatened BE2 "which automatically continued its customers' agreements and charged the customers' credit cards if the customer did not understand to serve notice to terminate the agreement two weeks prior to the end of the period" (http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/redress_cons/docs/MS_fiches_Finland.pdf)(Written in English).
I suggest that anyone threatened with legal action bring both of these cases to the attention of your legal representative. I also suggest contacting your MP (http://www.writetothem.com/). Tell them what has happened, highlight these cases and the thousands of complainants on English language, French and German language consumer sites. This might bring the Trading Standards Office and Financial Services Authority into action.
I am not a legal expert but I've done a bit of research on the complaints out there. They span a number of years and countries but I can't find any action by any UK agencies.
I'm waiting for the promised letter from a debt collector...
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