Airline giant takes fundraiser to court over name and alleged mission
It calls itself the UK’s biggest charity shopping site and has become the platform for raising millions of pounds for good causes.
Now however Easyfundraising could be facing a legal battle with one of the world’s biggest airlines over copyright infringement.
The Charity Commission is investigating the organisation after a complaint from Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of airline easyJet who said he is prepared to unleash an “army of lawyers” to defend the use of the easy brand.
Easyfundraising has raised £50m for good causes since its launch in 2005. It works through brands paying a commission based on customers directed to them via the website with the site, in turn, paying at least half the amount to causes chosen by the customer.
EasyGroup launched legal action against Easyfundraising over the use of the word “easy”, with the judgment expected in the next few months.
However the group is claiming the site is basically a “charity guise” after it discovered Easyfundraising is backed by private equity firm Palatine.
Haji-Iannou said it was an “egregious misrepresentation” for the firm to be described on Facebook as a “charity organisation” when only 13% of the good causes on the website are registered charities.
He said: “I believe they can only make money by misleading the donating public that they are a charity – when in fact they are a very profitable company [backed] by private equity.”
Alex Heasley, chief customer officer at Easyfundraising, denied the claims.
She said: “We don’t solicit donations. We provide a platform or technology for these donations to be raised. If people choose to shop via Easyfundraising, a donation can be raised for their cause.”
She said users understood and were informed that they were visiting a company website. Heasley also said Easyfundraising categorised itself as a “charity organisation” on Facebook because the social media site did not have a category of “fundraising” platform.
A Charity Commission spokesperson said: “We can confirm we have received correspondence raising concerns about a fundraising platform called Easyfundraising. We are currently reviewing the information available to us to determine if there is a role for the commission. As part of this, we have written to Easyfundraising.”
