Meinolf's city guide empire

Meinolf Lüdenbach.

"Meinolf, who," one might ask.

Meinolf, the brains behind the fraudulent scam called European City Guide.

Meinolf, the German guy who is pocketing millions of euros from European citizens, including hundreds of Maltese victims, who paid up after falling victims to his scams.

The Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger and the Daily Mirror in the United Kingdom have of lately exposed this gentleman.

Born in Hamburg, he has been involved in questionable business activities since the 1980s. Nevertheless, he established the two main holding companies of his scam guides, Maiwolf Holding and Maiwolf Management in Switzerland only during the early 1990s.

Apart from owning the "Guides" - including the European City Guide based in Spain - Mr Lüdenbach's holding companies control also a number of debt collection entities which chase the "debtors" of the ECG. These debt collectors, which are many times based in either Switzerland or Germany, pose as independent entities but are actually part of the same business empire. These debt collection companies include Gravis Inkasso GmbH and Premium Recovery AG.

Consumers should be aware that apart from the European City Guide, the Lüdenbach empire includes also Novachannel AG, Contstruct Data - The Fair Guide and Intercable Verlag. They all adopt similar deceptive practices, namely sending documents claiming they are offering free advertisements in their publications. Nevertheless, the cunningly hidden small print reveals that these are actually contracts carrying considerable costs. Numerous Maltese businesses and non-governmental organisations have been deceived by this scam.

I have been following this issue for many months now and, finally, I can report progress on the European Commission front. Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, who is in charge of consumer protection, has shown his willingness to go beyond the lip service that was usually paid to this case and actually start considering action to be taken against these operators. In a letter, I briefed him about the numerous cases involving Maltese citizens.

Among other things, the commissioner met the Spanish authorities (ECG is based in Valencia) on this particular case.

I am writing following the numerous complaints I have been receiving for the past months from my constituents in Malta in connection with the operations of the Spanish company, European City Guide.

There is obviously a need for a European-wide solution to tackle this and similar fraud cases. In the meantime, the standard advice is never to sign anything that sounds too good to be true. Secondly, if one erroneously signs such a form, one should send a cancellation as early as possible. Also, denounce the deceitful nature of the "contract" and inform the consumer protection authorities. Finally, do not pay up and seek legal advice. The Guide companies are always threatening with lawsuits but it seems that to date they have not taken anyone to court.

Mr Muscat is a Labour member of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee of the European Parliament.

www.josephmuscat.com