Legal implications when problems arise

Disgruntled member threatens with police

[buksida]

We have a local community forum for tourists and expats and offer advertising packages in the form of full webpages for local businesses.

One of the business owners has taken a years advertising and is also an active poster on the message board. He is extremely opinionated and has been warned a number of times. Now it has come to a head and he has blown up demanding his money back for the ad and threatening with police action.

The problem is that the website is not a registered company and the income is not taxed. There are no recepits for any earnings, its all pretty much cash in hand.

Another problem is that we and the website/forum is based in Southeast Asia where police corruption is rife and there are many legal loopholes.

I'm just not sure how to proceed with this one so any advice or thoughts would be apreciated.

[rogerd]

We can't offer legal advice in the forum, particularly in a case with complex facts in a jurisdiction we aren't familiar with.

What you describe sounds like a messy situation due to the questionable legal status of the operation and the loose accounting. The easiest thing would be for the person who took the money to make a partial or complete refund to the dissatisfied customer. If that isn't possible, it would seem like that individual might be the target of any legal action since there's no "company" to go after. Nevertheless, such action could affect anyone affiliated with the site. Get a local lawyer, preferably one with good connections.

[buksida]

Thanks for the reply, I have offered a 50% refund since the ad has been running for a couple of months already.

Hoping it doesnt get messy.