Chris Emmins of Kwikchex and his crusade against consumer rights

The latest news from Timeshare Advice Centre and European Consumer Claims.

Spanish Law firm M1 Legal released a statement in response to the article published recently on the RDO website.

"Mr Chris Emmins, owner of Kwikchex, pretends to be an investigator on the part of the consumers against companies that use fraudulent or misleading tactics. However, all his efforts are only directed against companies which challenge the timeshare industry (the members of the RDO), because Mr Chris Emmins is funded by the RDO.

"His role (as published on Linkedin) “has been to ensure that Kwikchex is globally renowned for helping businesses fight online defamation and substantiating their true standards”. However, the real face behind this facade is a person who started a crusade against the consumers and the companies which dare to stand against the mighty timeshare industry.

"It seems that it is not the first time when Mr Emmins decided to defend the interests of the big hotels and resorts against the consumers, trying to limit the right of free expression of the people affected by low standard accommodation, who posted reviews on Trip Advisor. In 2010 Chris Emmins, co-founder of the “online reputation management firm” Kwikchex, as his company was promoted at the time, started a massive action against Trip Advisor, which provoked the investigation of the Advertising Standards Authority, which found that it was possible for “non-genuine content” to appear on Trip Advisor.

"Shortly after that Mr Chris Emmins offered his services to the RDO when he presented his proposals for supporting the timeshare industry to a joint meeting of the Communications and Legislative Councils on 26/02/2013, as stated in an article published on the RDO website: Undoubtedly it is difficult for the media to think outside the old stereotypes of the “hard sell” when it comes to timeshare, the Board agreed with the outline proposals, and we will be working on these with Chris and his team over the coming weeks.

"From that moment on, Mr Chris Emmins received limitless resources to fight with the “old stereotypes” and all companies which dare to derogate the reputation of the timeshare industry.

"We have evidence that Diamond Resorts and Club La Costa send letters to their clients offering them to contact Kwikchex (Timeshare Task Force, Timeshare Business Check) free of charge if they have concerns or questions about their timeshare ownership. For the sake of transparency this initiative is funded by the RDO – the European trade association of the timeshare industry. So Kwikchex and the RDO expect the consumers to believe that they will receive free of charge an unbiased opinion about their timeshare contract, considering the fact that Kwikchex is funded by the RDO.

"Within the list of members in the RDO are the following companies/timeshare resorts: Anfi Sales S.L. (a company selling timeshare for the resorts Anfi Beach Club, Club Grand Anfi, Club Puerto Anfi, Club Monte Anfi, located in Gran Canarias), CLC World resorts & Hotels (having resorts in Spain and Tenerife).

"Mr Chris Emmins still pretends to be "assisting consumers and challenging businesses that appear to be in breach of consumer protection legislation". However, he has never mentioned anywhere that against many of the members of RDO there are in fact plenty of court decisions declaring their contracts to be null and void and awarding the consumers compensations. The hypocrisy is obvious, isn't it?"

Senior Lawyer, M1 Legal.

Article released on the RDO website - https://rdo.org/news/itra-ecc-and-m1-legal/