26 September 2002

In this morning's High Court hearing the music industry did not obtain an injunction against easyInternetcafé from discussing the extortionate amounts of money that the music industry is trying to get from easyInternetcafé. The judge did not see any urgency in the matter and postponed the hearing of the injunction until next week.

25 September 2002

The easyGroup orange boiler suit brigade, lead by Stelios, will be protesting in front of the High Court at 10.30am tomorrow Thursday September 26th. This is the time scheduled for the High Court hearing when the music industry will apply for an injunction against both easyInternetcafé and the easyGroup from publicly discussing the ongoing battle between the two parties. The music industry is represented by the BPI (British Phonographic Industry), the trade body representing Sony Music, EMI, Polydor and the other members of the cartel holding copyrights on music.

Originally the BPI had warned easyInternetcafé that it would get "bad PR" if it became public knowledge that easyInternetcafé customers had been downloading music files protected by copyright onto CDs in easyInternetcafé stores. easyInternetcafé disagreed with this point of view and felt that it had nothing to hide. Now the BPI have done an about-turn and are attempting to gag easyInternetcafé from discussing anything further, presumably because they are embarrased that it has become public knowledge they have tried to extort as much as £1 million from easyInternetcafé.

Stelios and the orange boiler suit brigade will have three main banners at their protest ouside the High Court. The first will defend their right to free speech and will protest against the requested injunction being heard in the High Court, "We will not be gagged". What is the BPI so worried about that it wishes the whole matter to be kept secret? The second reads, "Stop the CD rip-off" as the music industry cartel has for too long been milking the consumer with their over-priced products. The third banner suggests a way forward, "Legalise music downloads".

"The music companies are operating an outdated business model," said Stelios the serial entrepreneur, founder of easyGroup and easyInternetcafé. "They are creating costs and complications for themselves by producing CDs, wrapping them in expensive packaging, incurring the costs of distribution and then allowing retailers to take their cut of the cake. If they allowed online music downloads for a fee they could reduce their own costs and still make money by offering consumers lower prices," continued Stelios. "Just because they have a stranglehold on the consumer today does not mean they should maintain their outdated and inefficient business model. As soon as some real competition is introduced into their industry they will be undercut by someone who can offer a distribution system that benefits the consumer and not just their own pockets."

easyInternetcafé stopped their in-store CD burning service a year ago. When it was available the terms and conditions of the stores stated that the use of easyInternetcafé for illegal reasons was not permitted. However, since the CD burning service was stopped the BPI contacted easyInternetcafé to say that the downloading of music files protected by copyright had been taking place in their stores. easyInternetcafé invited the BPI to examine the hard disks in their stores that had been used to hold music files. The BPI then claimed £1 million damages from easyInternetcafé who completely disagreed with the BPI's calculations and also refused the amount of their claim. The BPI then tried to claim £380,000 from easyInternetcafé which was also refused. At the beginning of August 2002 the BPI asked for £100,000 but told easyInternetcafé that they had to pay by mid-August. This was also refused as easyInternetcafé found all of the BPI demands excessive, even if they did vary by a factor of 10!

easyInternetcafé has offered the BPI a global settlement of £50,000 to avoid the costs to both sides of litigation but the BPI response has been to try to gag easyInternetcafé from discussing the matter.

Photo opportunities with Stelios and the orange boiler suit brigade as well as interviews with Stelios will be available in front of the High Court by 10.30am on Thursday September 26th.

12 December 2001

Following a ruling published today by the Advertising Standards Authority, the self regulating body funded by the print media industry, Stelios, the easyGroup chairman, has called for the responsibilities of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to be taken over by a government body because the ASA is obviously unwilling to stand up to 'big media'. The ASA has upheld a complaint made by AOL Time Warner, the world's largest media company, against easyEverything, the chain of internet cafes owned by Stelios which are now known as easyInternetcafé. The ASA ruled that a monthly pass offered by easyInternetcafé cannot be compared fairly with the services of an internet service provider like AOL as the location of the service is "fundamental".

Stelios said, "The ruling is clearly protecting the interests of the incumbent. It is as absurd as saying that hiring a video cannot be compared fairly with going to the cinema or that buying membership to a gym cannot be compared fairly to owning your own exercise bike. To use an analogy from another industry I know extremely well, it's the equivalent of if back in 1996 comparative advertising between British Airways and easyJet had been banned on the basis that one flies from Heathrow and the other from Luton. As a matter of fact the High Court has actually ruled in favour of Ryanair against British Airways over a comparative advertisement even though the airports involved were different at both ends. In order to substantially reduce prices to consumers in an industry you have to completely re-engineer the process and that in most cases involves altering the location of the service. I feel sorry for the people at the ASA because if they believe that the only place that you should be accessing the internet from is your own home they are clearly not in touch with reality. We may call for a judicial review of the situation."

Stelios continued, "easyInternetcafé has no intention of complying with the demands of the ASA. In fact we are presently running an advertising campaign on Virgin radio which makes reference to AOL. Like our last radio campaign which also made reference to AOL, this met with no objection from the relevant regulator."

easyInternetcafé is the cheapest way to get online and competes with internet service providers such as AOL to get consumers online. 30 day passes to any one of the internet cafes in the UK costs £15 if it is purchased today. If purchased a month in advance, the 30 day pass costs £7, two months in advance costs £5 and six months in advance costs £1. Thus 30 days' internet access at easyInternetcafé costs between £15 and £1 where the computers are also provided and maintained, as is high speed, broadband access which would cost an independent user £40 a month from BT. A month's internet access subscription from AOL costs £15 and subscribers have to provide their own computers and telecommunication lines.

easyInternetcafé introduced 30 day and 1 day passes last August which have proved very popular with consumers, so much so that approximately half the computers in any easyInternetcafé now form the 'pass zone', the other half form the 'pay as you go' zones where the price of internet access varies according to store occupancy. When the 30 day pass was introduced, easyInternetcafé accompanied its marketing with the slogan, "Tear up your AOL account" and with an image of stelios tearing up his 'AOL subscription'. Both the slogan and image were used in-store, in press advertising and on advertising vans. A similar message was also conveyed in radio advertising. A high resolution image of Stelios tearing up his AOL account, as used in the advertising, can be viewed at the photo gallery.

AOL complained to the ASA about the easyInternetcafé advertising and the complaint has been upheld. This ruling is at odds with the Radio Advertising Clearance Centre which approved the easyInternetcafé radio advertisements that carried a similar message. The main point of the ASA ruling is that the offer of internet access is fundamentally different in terms of physical location from the two providers and is therefore unfair. The full ruling can be viewed at www.asa.org.uk.

easyInternetcafé totally disagrees with the ASA ruling which does nothing to uphold the ASA's stated aim of protecting the consumer. No member of the public complained about the easyInternetcafé advertisement, the only complaint was from AOL themselves. The easyInternetcafé advertisement left no doubt in the mind of the consumer that they needed to go to one of the easyInternetcafé stores in order to avail themselves of this offer. easyInternetcafé, like all easyGroup companies, reduces the price of services to consumers by re-engineering industries. One of the principal ways in which easyInternetcafé provides faster, cheaper internet access to the public at large is by getting consumers to come to its stores, as opposed to bringing internet access to their homes or offices.
To download a high resolution image of Stelios tearing up his AOL account...click HERE

11 April 2001

easyInternetcafé, the chain of the world's largest Internet cafes, has signed a franchise agreement with Germanos, the leading mobile phone retailer in Greece that is listed on the Athens stock exchange. Under the terms
of the agreement Germanos has taken on the right to franchise the easyInternetcafé Internet cafes in Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia.

This is the first time that an easyGroup business has given a franchise of its name to a third party. The agreement commits Germanos to opening a minimum of 10 easyInternetcafé Internet cafes within their region within the next three years.

Not yet two years old, easyInternetcafé already has 20 cafes throughout western Europe and one in New York, receiving a total of almost 2,000,000 visitors a month. In order to continue this rapid growth on a global
scale easyInternetcafé is forming franchise agreements with companies that have relevant experience and profile within their own regions of the globe.
Germanos have a chain of more than 250 shops in Greece and the Balkans.

Established easyInternetcafé cafes provide customers not only with fast and cheap Internet access but also gives them access to the latest Microsoft® software and webcams on a 'pay as you go' basis. Creating franchise agreements will spread these services to more and more countries of the world. "We are doing our bit to consign the digital divide to the history books," said Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the easyGroup chairman and founder of easyInternetcafé. "Demand for fast and cheap Internet access is universal. As more and more people use the Internet on the move, through our stores, we will use franchising to reach more parts of the globe, faster, in order to become a ubiquitous solution for Internet access to all travellers. In other words, next time you travel, check our website, we may have a store where you are going!"