Suing a parcel delivery company when you don't have a direct contract with them – third-party rights.

[BankFodder]

A very common scenario is that people wishing to send a parcel to someone else use a parcel broker/price comparison service to identify a suitable courier company – rather than go directly to the courier company.

This means that when you make a contract to send a parcel, your contract is with the parcel broker and not with the parcel delivery company. This happens especially with people who send parcels because of eBay sales.

Typical scenarios are:
Through eBay, you make a contract with Packlink who decide on your behalf to send a parcel using Yodel or EVRi.
Through the Internet, you make a contract with Parcel2Go which decides on your behalf to send your parcel using EVRi or DPD or DHL.
Through the Internet you make a contract with ParcelHero which decides on your behalf to send your parcel using a courier company of their choice – EVRi, DPD et cetera.

The common element in all of the scenarios is that you make your contract directly with the parcel broker. You don't have a contract with the delivery company.

In English contract law this poses difficulties because you can only sue somebody for breach of contract if you have a contract directly with them.

However, in 1999, Parliament passed the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. This act of Parliament can in certain circumstances give you the rights to sue on a contract just as if you were a directly contracted partner.

In order to be entitled to third-party rights you must be a discernible beneficiary of the contract. In other words you must be somebody who's actually identified in the contract or you must clearly be somebody who is entitled to benefit under the contract.
Our view is that if you are the sender or the addressee of a parcel then you are clearly somebody who is intended to benefit under the parcel delivery contract. There can scarcely be any argument about this.
The other requirement is that there must be no evidence in the contract between the parcel delivery company and the broker that they did not intend for the contract to be enforced by third parties under the 1999 Act.

Generally speaking when you make a contract through ParcelHero or P2G , this doesn't pose any problem because you can sue these parcel brokers directly. They are domiciled within the United Kingdom jurisdiction and it is easy to issue a claim against them and to force them to engage in the litigation.

The situation with Packlink is very different. Packlink are domiciled in Spain and this means that if you want to bring a court action against them, you're going to have to do it in the Spanish courts – and this would be extremely complicated, possibly expensive – and certainly long winded.
Packlink used to be domiciled in the United Kingdom and then suddenly for no obvious reason they packed up shop and moved to Spain. Anybody who suspects that this might have been done simply to make it more difficult for the victims of last parcels to be able to sue them in the English courts, should go and say a prayer, asked for forgiveness and wash their mouth out with soap.
This would be a very evil suspicion and unworthy of any right thinking member of society  .

We have helped lots of people bring cases against mainly EVRi – but some of the others – even though those people did not have direct contracts with those courier companies, but instead they relied upon their third-party rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

In every case, the courier company has howled with indignation and protested in their defences that there was no direct contract with them and that the rights of third parties act did not apply.
However, in not a single case where they prepared to put their money where their mouth is and go to court. Instead they preferred simply to settle out of court at the mediation stage – thereby avoiding a judgement against them which would confirm that the claimant did in fact have third-party rights.

Until now.

We are pleased to say that recently at Brentford County Court we helped somebody to win his case on the basis of his third-party rights. This happened on 12 July 2023 and we have applied for a transcript of the judgement – but that won't be available – probably not before September.

However, this is an important milestone in the battle against the courier company scammers – and as soon as we receive the transcript of this judgement we will make it available in this forum and on this thread to be included in people's court bundle in preparation for their court cases against courier companies who tried to deny you your third party rights.

At the moment, although we don't have a transcript, you should certainly cite this case if you are going to trial and explained to the judge that no transcript is available yet because it has only recently been applied for.

If you need this information then please flag it up in your thread and we will make sure you get whatever is necessary.

Meanwhile – watch this space.