Indiegogo changes its T&C due to the handheld ZX Spectrum campaign

[Steve]

A couple of months ago, a guy in the UK that backed the handheld ZX Spectrum campaign took Retro Computers Limited to court in order to get his money back. The judge rejected Indiegogo's terms and conditions and said that a backer who pledges at a tier where a reward is offered has a direct contract of sale with them and therefore they have the legal right to expect delivery of the product. He awarded the guy £584, which included travel costs and compensation for lost earnings due to him having to attend court.

 

Part of why the judge made this ruling was based on the wording used on Indiegogo's website when a person backs a campaign: -

 

That document is important in my view for this reason: it says 'this order'. Not 'this pledge' but 'this order' has been successfully added to your campaign. That would appear to be something that was probably in my view provided by Indiegogo but theres no clarification of that. It makes it clear, 'this is an order'. This was successfully added to your campaign. This is the information that was provided to the claimant at the time.

Today, Indiegogo have made a change to their website, so that when you back a campaign it now says "this contribution", not "this order", and people who had already made pledges for existing campaigns have found that the wording has changed for them too, so it's retro-active.

[Jam Burglar]

Don't think they can shield themselves by claiming the change is "retroactive".

[Flexinoodle]

Nothing can be retroactive once precedent is set, any actions taken by people will be based on the wording used at the time of transaction.

[Deft]

I promised myself that I would never use Indiegogo again after my Vega burn, but I just backed this (with overwhelming support from my wife, so I'll blame her when it doesn't turn up):

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/juno-like-a-microwave-for-cooling/