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In Vogon International Limited v The Serious Fraud Office [2005], a dispute arose in relation to the interpretation of the payment terms in the contract between the parties.

The Serious Fraud Office (”SFO”) hired Vogan International Limited (”Vogon”) to retrieve email data from computerised tapes used during a criminal investigation. Prior to entering into the agreement, Vogon calculated its estimated fee based upon number of completed backups. When Vogon later submitted its quotation to the SFO, the costs were determined in relation to number of completed Microsoft Exchange databases.

Vogon processed 39 backups from the tapes provided by the SFO in relation to two Microsoft Exchange Databases. Vogon sent an invoice to the SFO for £314,375 for the 10 days’ work needed to process the 39 backups.

The SFO claimed that the sum due was based upon the number of completed Microsoft Exchange databases, so paid Vogon £22,500.

The court ruled in the SFO’s favour as follows:-

the word “database” had no single meaning and so it was necessary to consider the word in its contextual meaning;

the question was not what the word “database” was capable of meaning, but what it meant within the contract;

in the context of the quotation and the accompanying cover letter, all references to databases were references to a server;

furthermore, Vogon’s construction of “database” was commercially unlikely, given the difference between the resulting charges;

Vogon could not claim a case of mistake or estoppel as this would be contrary to legal principle; and

Vogon should pay the SFO’s costs as Vogon’s invoice for such a large sum had been dishonest and opportunistic.

Vogon appealed this decision to the Court of Appeal (”CA”). The CA held that:-

the court was correct in its interpretation of the contract and awarding the SFO its costs;

however, court was wrong to make a finding against Vogon that it had been dishonest and opportunistic where dishonesty had not been argued by the SFO nor did Vogon have the opportunity to defend itself against such findings.
Comment : Parties should seek legal advice at the outset of negotiations. This could avoid excessive legal fees and save valuable time, in the event of a dispute.

If you require further information contact us at: enquiries@rtcoopers.com

© RT COOPERS, 2005. This Briefing Note does not provide a comprehensive or complete statement of the law relating to the issues discussed nor does it constitute legal advice. It is intended only to highlight general issues. Specialist legal advice should always be sought in relation to particular circumstances.

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Online shopping has now become very popular. Besides vast information at your fingertips to help you learn more about products and services before making a purchase decision, you can compare prices with a few clicks whether you go for comparison shopping for computer hardware, compare prices for sporting goods or compare watches prices to find perfect birthday gifts for your loved ones. Home appliances comparison shopping could safe you a lot of money. As more and more people use the Internet for convenient shopping, con-artists are getting into online world as well. In virtual world, you send money with a click and without physical interaction with a cashier.

Most online shopping sites accept credit cards, and many of them take debit cards and e-check. Some B2B exchange even accept purchase orders. paypal now has over 70 millions of users world-wide, and it’s common for people to conduct transaction purely in emails. Shopping on the Internet is no less safe than shopping in a store or by mail if we follow the same principles of safe offline shopping.

* Shop at Trusted Sites - Shop at the websites of companies that you know and trust is the beginning of safe online shopping. You’ll likely have a happy shopping experience without getting into potential troubles later on.

* Make sure a site is what it claims to be - Some con-artists create websites looking like trusted websites. I receive at least one ebay scam email almost everyday - those who pretend to be ebay or paypal customer service to lure you to give out your username and passwords. Look at the URL carefully and use a secure connection for your payment submission. Secure browser not only encrypts the purchase information you send over the Internet but also authenticate the owner of a website to ensure a site is what it claims to be, not a predator.

* Use payment options which offer protections - If you shop on a authenticated trusted website, online shopping is actually safer than offline shopping since every transaction is tracked and you’ll receive confirmation email too. Both credit card transactions and paypal transactions are protected by the payment service processors or issuers.

* Think twice before giving out private information - Before giving out personal information, ask yourselves whether the information is necessary for a transaction. Trusted websites will usually ask for minimum information that is required to process the order, no more no less.

* Keep records of your online transactions - This is necessary in case you ask for a refund or file a dispute. Keep all your transaction confirmation e-mails in one folder for easy access and make backup copy of important electronic information.

* Review your monthly credit card and bank statements - This is the time to identify any errors or unauthorized purchases and to reconcile your account balance. Review the statement thoroughly, call their customer service promptly and notify your card issuers if you had identified disparity or unauthorized transactions.

Happy online shopping.

Natalie Aranda is a freelance writer. She writes about family, health, business experience and travel. She reguarly use online comparison shopping to compare prices for sporting goods or compare watches prices to find perfect gifts for her loved ones.

We hear and read a lot about the need for people to achieve a work-life balance. In this world of seemingly increasing pressure and workplace demands, is it really feasible to seek this balance? Does it matter? The short answer is yes, to both.

When you don’t have this balance it leads to even more pressure building. You may be getting it from home and your life outside because you are not devoting time to that, or possibly from work as you struggle to cope with the demands there whilst keeping “life” going. As these pressures mount and the imbalance becomes worse, there is a probability of stress occurring. Organisations are more aware of the costs of stress related issues these days - local government included. Not achieving balance can begin to affect you as an individual, your team or colleagues, your family and friends, so it matters!

For most people, the lack of desired work-life balance is a result of things creeping up on them rather than a specific event causing it. The trouble is they do not take action on these small issues and changes as they happen, and before long these are the habit. This is often combined with events around them at work and the culture which has evolved around use of time and expectations from staff.

Having said this, the reality is that the problem of a lack of work-life balance is self-inflicted. You have allowed it to happen! The other challenging factor is that the solution lies within yourselves! You need to start by accepting more responsibility for how you use, or abuse, your own time. You need to acknowledge that the underlying problems arise because you are allowing others to take more control of your time!

To change your life and begin moving towards getting the right work-life balance for you, begin by thinking about what it would be. One of the problems many of people face, is they do not know what their ideal work-life balance would be like! (They often know they don’t want what they have.) To get an idea of what you want spend some time doodling your thoughts. Write them down, mindmap them or even draw an image of what you want. As with many other activities, it can help you mobilise yourself into action if you have a really clear and compelling idea of what the end result will be. Be specific about what you want for you, personally, and for time with family and friends - and for work.

Now you know what you want, think about what needs to be different to achieve this. Identify what is happening with your time, and your life, currently. You can start with some generalised thinking, but this may lead to you overlooking some vital events or people! It can be useful to back-up your thinking by completing a time-log to make a note of exactly what you are doing, who and what interrupts you and how long these things are taking. Assess the activities against the key tasks of your job - and ask yourself which of these could or should be done by someone else?

The next step is to do a form of “gap analysis” . You can be specific about what needs to change in order to begin to achieve the desired balance which you created earlier. Before setting plans in place to address these areas, you can help yourself with a bit more self-assessment.

Over a number of years of working with groups and individuals in all aspects of time management and stress management, I have come to a conclusion that we make choices about what we do with our time. We do not think of it in those terms because those choices operate at such a deep-rooted level that we make them unconsciously. When we work late, even if asked by the boss, we are choosing to do that rather than go home to our family. These choices are based on our values and beliefs. Our values are the things which are important to us and we have evolved those over the years. Beliefs, in this context, are things we “hold to be true”. They take two forms, empowering and limiting. Put simply, the empowering ones are our “can do…” or “it’s OK to…” thoughts, whereas the limiting ones are the “must…”, “mustn’t…”, “can’t do…” or “it’s not OK to…” thoughts we have. This combination of values and beliefs dictate what we choose to do with our time. Taking the example above, you probably have values around security, career and ambition, which rate higher than values about family, relationships or self. You might have some limiting beliefs which say, “I must do what my manager (or other authority figures) asks.”

If you decide that achieving a better work-life balance is important you need to start by examining your values and beliefs. Firstly, identify what are your values. (Not something many people do or have done!) List them and then leave alone. Go back and look at them, decide what else you might want to add and then prioritise them. This can be a great exercise to do with a partner or significant other! When prioritised, evaluate how well you think these are being met with your current work-life balance. Where there is a gap, there will be a greater probability of pressure and stress being generated. If these really matter to you, you will take steps to start to make sure that your life is being lived to achieve them. This is why I said earlier, the solutions to getting your work-life balance lie with you!

The next stage is to do an action plan to tackle the areas in your gap analysis. Check back on your time logs and notice what is stealing your time from what would be your priorities in your balanced life. Be open to change - remember, “if you continue to do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.” Some basic things to do:

• Decide what you need to reduce or cut back at work.
• Learn to say “no” more often, be OK about being unavailable to others in order to get on with your own work. This includes the telephone!
• Accept that you need to take breaks and have a life in order to be more productive.
• Organise your time with basic time management techniques, “to do lists”, time planners etc.
• Plan to do things for yourself and with your family and friends - and stick to those plans.
• Schedule to leave work at a certain time - and stick to it.
• Avoid taking work home and doing it in evenings or weekends, only allowing yourself very rare exceptions.

If your work-life balance is not what you want it to be, recognise that one of the reasons for this is you have allowed others to take control of your time (and life!). To achieve the balance you want, which leads to a happier life, less pressure and greater contentment, you need to put yourself back in control. To do this, be willing to change, taking responsibility for your own actions and reactions and use the appropriate behaviours to get the work-life balance you want.

Graham Yemm is a partner in Managing Pressure and has 20 years of experience of working with organisations and individuals, internationally and in the UK, to help them manage time more effectively and to deal with pressure and stress. He can be reached through info@managingpressure.com or +44 1483 480656.

The art of counterfeiting dates back over 2,000 years. Where there is something valuable, such as money, there are always those who look to profit. Whether this is through legal means (such as legitimate business) or illegal means (such as counterfeiting the money itself) is up to the individuals themselves. What is a given, however, is that something of value attracts criminal activity. Authentic designer handbags, such as the Prada BR2375 or BR0830 as displayed on the Fashion Link, are valuable and thus attract criminals who seek to profit from this. Consumer demand ensures profit and thus a breeding ground for counterfeiting is created. The IACC states that counterfeiting robs the U.S. of more than $200 billion dollars a year. This article aims not to deal with the broad topic of how to spot a fake, which in its entirety must be dealt with by looking at individual designers, but rather looks to provide general information and tips regarding fake designer handbags.

Firstly, handbags sold in a market or on a street corner are almost certainly not authentic. New York’s famous Canal Street is a hotbed for selling fake designer goods. It doesn’t take much to realize that a Marc Jacobs baseball cap bought from this street is a fake, as Marc Jacobs doesn’t make such apparel. A similar thing can occur when examining many fake handbags. We often see models that don’t exist, colors that don’t exit on the model, re-designed handbag interiors, wrong stamp logos, fake authenticity cards, and fake tags. What we also often see are letters changed, such as LV to VV, or names slightly changed. Fake handbags such as these, however, are not only confined to the streets. They are present in store fronts, such as a store in Miami which was recently raided by the police. This particular store was even in a mall. Similarly, a legitimate business on Canal Street was found to have a hidden door whereby smuggled counterfeit goods were found. Fines of only $250,000 and five years in jail await such smugglers. The rapid expansion of the internet in the mid-1990’s also saw the birth of a new counterfeit market. E-businesses and auction sites such as Ebay have proven to be a breeding ground for counterfeit goods.

With the huge industry that is counterfeiting, then, how can one spot a fake and what precautions can be taken? Firstly, be realistic! An authentic Louis Vuitton handbag that retails for well over $500.00 is not going to be sold on Ebay for $70.00. Similar things can be said of many other handbag designers such as Gucci, Prada and Fendi (although older models and defective handbags may be an exception).

As companies implement stricter control mechanisms for verifying authenticity, the counterfeiter gets better. They are now creating handbags that store professionals often struggle to identify as fakes. Every last detail is copied, from the stamp and logo to the authenticity card. However, often these bags display inferior leather to their authentic counterpart.

Whilst maintaining a grip on realism, it is often worth looking for the detail of the handbag. Ask yourself the following of a bag: How is the stitching, fabric, and leather? What are the zips, handles, and buckles like? Does it come with extras? When paying high prices you expect high quality workmanship, high quality material, and high quality presentation. Zips, handles, and buckles often let down fakes. Be sure to check the weight of the metal and the solidity of the leather. Also, celebrities often carry authentic handbags with them and are displayed in the countless tabloids. We advise you to closely compare and contrast their bag and your bag or potential bag. This can also be done by visiting the company website, such as www. Gucci . com.

Some bags that may have defects, however, may come from outlets and these are usually authentic. So whilst certain things may be true of some bags (e.g. Hermes’ handmade bags being flawless), what has been said must be taken with a pinch of salt. Authorized dealers are the best bet for authenticity, but brands such as Gucci, Prada, and Fendi aren’t exclusive to these types of stores. The best things to do when looking to purchase an authentic designer handbag is maintain a degree of realism, compare and contrast, ask for actual item pictures, and shop around. Whilst this aims to be an introduction into the topic of handbag counterfeiting, it is by no means absolute. Articles tackling specifics, such as design, hardware, and where to purchase will follow this introduction.

© Corleone Couture 2005.
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