Aria Technology stumps up after tablet spat goes legal

E-tailer forced to pay MT Components more than £5,000 after losing court case

E-tailer Aria Technology has lost a court case over payments it withheld from a supplier because it believed its tablets were not up to scratch.

MT Components, a Birmingham-based distributor, brought legal proceedings against Aria Technology at Northampton County Court over unpaid invoices totalling more than £4,000.

Aria chief executive Aria Taheri (pictured below) told CRN his firm did not pay the outstanding bills because the costs incurred from returning the tablets from customers was greater than the amount Aria owed MT Components. Taheri claimed that 118 of the Sumvision tablets MT Components supplied were returned by customers last year.

In his witness statement, Taheri said: "The goods supplied by the claimant [MT Components] were not of satisfactory quality and the defendant [Aria Technology] experienced an unusually high volume of returns."

But when the case went to court in March, the judge ruled that a clause in MT Components' terms and conditions on its website meant Aria had to pay for the goods whatever condition they were in.

The clause said: "All payments shall be payable by the customer when due without deduction, deferment, set-off or discount for whatever reason whether for defective goods or otherwise."

The judge ruled that because emails had been sent between Aria Technology and MT Components with the line "You agree to MT's terms and conditions", it must pay MT Components the outstanding invoices. Aria Technology and MT Components had not previously signed a written contract over the supply of tablets.

Speaking to CRN, Taheri claimed it was unfair to have these terms and conditions on MT Components' website rather than displayed in a written contract.

"There needs to be [something to] show that terms and conditions have been communicated either by signature or by email," he said. "You can't just hide it somewhere on the website and include such an unfair clause there."

Taheri said Aria Technology ended its relationship with MT Components last September and paid the money it owed - which totalled £5,200.92, including legal costs - to the distributor this week.

MT Components declined to comment.

Dave Stevinson, commercial director at distributor Entatech, said it was quite unusual for a distributor to have terms and conditions only on its website.

"The correct procedure would be a distributor and a reseller making an agreement with terms signed at the point of making the agreement. Displaying the conditions on a website should be complementary, not a substitute," he said.