Lyoness Europe AG loses appeal/Defence on grounds of international jurisdiction at court. Terms and Conditions declared null and void. Court makes no distinction between my World and/or Lyoness.

The Lyoness pyramid scheme has a penchant for appealing to the jurisdiction of individual courts, invoking Swiss jurisdiction outside EU legislation.

As usual, the Lyoness pyramid scheme referred to international and local jurisdiction of the Austrian courts in a case concerning one Austrian Lyoness victim (more than €20,000 [über zweideutig!]) at Vienna Commercial Court (51 Cg 10/19f-13) against Lyoness Europe AG.

Vienna Commercial Court found the following, inter alia, in the rationale of its ruling on 3 February 2020 (51 Cg 10/19f-13):

The court has ruled dismissed the defence raised by Lyoness on grounds of lack of international jurisdiction.

The injured party petitioned on behalf of his company XXXXXXXXXX, of which he was the sole owner, for repayment of several investments made from the respondent resident in Switzerland (Lyoness). He referred to a convention on court jurisdiction in the question of Austrian court jurisdiction, which applied to this case. All members Lyoness were forced to sign to the new terms and conditions in order to be able to access their online member account; the members were unable to acknowledge the new terms and conditions beforehand.

The transition procedure involved Lyoness blocking the petitioner’s access to his online account and personal user area on the website of the respondent (Lyoness) until the petitioner accepted the new terms and conditions for Lyoness members as well as the additional general terms and conditions for Lyoness members on using extended membership benefits. The Lyoness website issued the following notification:

“[…] Terms and Conditions not confirmed

“You have not yet confirmed the Terms and Conditions “You are required to read and accept the Terms and Conditions in order to proceed to the internal area.”

The online user area of the petitioner was not (technically) accessible or unlocked until the petitioner ticked the box confirming acceptance of the terms and conditions.

International jurisdiction regarding the Lyoness headquarters in Switzerland is governed by the convention on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (LGVÜ 2007) concluded in Lugano on 30 October 2007. LGVÜ 2007 has been applicable to Switzerland since 1 January 2011.

In addition, Lyoness did not comply with the procedure specified in its intended transition to the new terms and conditions (change notice); in particular, Lyoness omitted any reference to the legal consequences of (not) objecting to the change, so the terms and conditions did not effectively come into force.

“The question as to whether my World Austria GmbH is in fact Lyoness Austria GmbH under a new name is moot, as is the matter of its headquarters in Graz,” the court added. The routine change in company name did not have the intended result for Lyoness.