2024: What a year
A lot has happened in 2024 – globally, in the UK, and for European Consumer Claims.
The Ukraine war rumbled on, with North Korea alarmingly throwing its hat into the ring in November and Biden giving the go-ahead for long-range missile strikes deep within Russia. Israel and Hamas continued to exchange violence with no clear end in sight. The Syrian Assad regime finally fell in December, with the rest of the world watching to see where the dust settles for the Middle East and beyond.
The seemingly endless US election cycle continued to astound, with Donald Trump being indicted, convicted, shot, and finally winning by a landslide, giving US Conservatives control of all three branches of government. In the UK, Sir Keir Starmer got off to a shaky start after a decisive national rejection of the Tory party.
Coldest and hottest temperatures were recorded worldwide, while a succession of hurricanes terrorised the US Mid-Atlantic and Eastern Seaboards.
We said our final goodbyes to notables including Geoff Capes, Liam Payne, James Earl Jones (the voice of Darth Vader), David Soul, Carl Weathers, Lou Gosset Junior, Richard Simmons and the notorious OJ Simpson.
Warrington teenager Luke Littler won the nation’s hearts by reaching the World Darts Championship final at just 16, narrowly missing out on the top prize to the more established Luke Humphries.
New shoots miraculously began to sprout from the famous Sycamore Gap tree, six months after the iconic 150-year-old Hadrian’s Wall landmark near Crag Lough was felled by senseless vandals – giving hope it may yet be resurrected. Ageing Manchester rockers Oasis announced their reunion after a thirty-year absence, sparking rumours that financial pressures helped bring the warring brothers back together.
Britain’s mighty Olympians hauled 65 medals home – 14 golds, 22 silvers and 29 bronze.
European Consumer Claims: our 2024 review
2024 is the eighth year in business for European Consumer Claims, making us one of the longest-serving and most successful claims firms in Europe.
By the time the bells ring out the final moments of 2024, we are on track to have helped more than 326 desperate holiday ownership victims escape unwanted contracts. We are also forecast to have secured financial compensation of more than £2,400,000 for over 110 clients.
Although our focus has traditionally been on holiday ownership consumer claims, we have always been a broader consumer claims firm. Together with our associated legal partners M1 Legal, M1 Law and Pinder Reaux, we fight consumer abuse wherever we find it.
In October 2024, we launched a large-scale campaign to take on the shocking consumer abuses in the holiday park and static homes market.
An estimated 465,000 people in the UK own either static homes or holiday park caravans – a similar number to British timeshare owners. Many holiday park sales agents have come from a timeshare background.
ECC aims to hold these bad actors to account in the same way we have in the holiday ownership industry over the last eight years.
Media praise
2024 brought no shortage of positive local, national and international media coverage. The Daily Mirror covered our work, as did The Sun, Metro, Wales Online and Stoke on Trent Live.
The Henley Herald chronicled our success again, and an eight-episode podcast on Valencia Life about our work was downloaded thousands of times.
I echo our previous CEO’s thoughts from last year: journalists are becoming more fearless about speaking truth to power. They are starting to challenge rich and influential companies in a way that, historically, they haven’t always had the courage to do.
We look forward to more coverage as we broaden our fight against consumer abuse – starting with holiday parks and static homes, but also wherever we find injustice and service providers at fault.
Florida offices launched
A new regional office was needed to cope with the surge in US business, and the super-regional Galleria Mall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida was selected. Florida has the world’s highest density of holiday ownership members due to the concentration of theme parks such as Disney and Universal Studios.
Vast numbers of holidaymakers have been signed up to holiday ownerships in Florida, and a significant amount of those people now regret the purchase. It made sense for us to have a physical presence in this location.
In the US, we are known as American Consumer Claims (ACC).
25 dedicated professionals are currently manning the ACC desks stateside and looking after our US clients.
2025: what happens next?
Humans are due to return to the Moon this year for the first time in over half a century. Only a fly-past is planned for the Artemis 2 mission, with a crew of four astronauts travelling around the far side of our celestial neighbour.
The next mission, Artemis 3, is due to touch down at the lunar South Pole a year later, leaving more powdery, grey, outsized bootprints in history.
2025 is FIFA Club World Cup year – not the trophy contested by nations, but the championship vied for by clubs. Manchester City will be hoping to defend their title in June in the United States.
Will Donald J Trump’s second term bring apocalyptic disaster and tyranny – or simply lower taxes and a more stable geopolitical environment? We will have to wait and see.
On a personal level, no doubt we will all change, and live through events that are momentous – even if only to ourselves. No less important for that.
And 2025 for ECC?
European Consumer Claims will continue marshalling its resources in defence of legions of holiday park and static home sales victims, both in the UK and further afield. Expect shady operators in this industry to be shaken up as drastically as rogue companies in the timeshare business.
Despite the well-documented success of ECC to date, we really are just getting started. In the words of Canadian rock legend Randy Bachman: "you aint seen nothing yet..."
I will leave you with a 1,900-year-old quote from the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus. It is a mindset I strive to live by, and a large part of the spirit that has allowed European Consumer Claims to consistently pioneer new ways to bring elusive holiday ownership companies to justice – even when the “experts” said it couldn’t be done.
"If you wish to improve, be content to be thought both foolish and stupid"
In the coming year, may we all have the courage to try new things, and never be daunted by the fear of failure.
