Free flights cases mount for Hoover

Hoover faces fresh trouble next month over its free-flights offer with the hearing of two new test cases in the long-running legal battle between the manufacturer and disappointed customers.

The new cases claim Hoover discouraged applicants from taking up free flights to the US, offered through the purchase of Hoover products, by using two stalling mechanisms.

The first alleges that the company took so long to inform some applicants their chosen flight dates were unavailable that, when eventually contacted, they were left without adequate time to process their prize claims.

The second deals with the company’s alleged refusal to acknowledge some applicants’ flight date nominations on the grounds that the wording of their nomination letters was inadequate.

Six test cases, two of which are still in progress alongside the new cases, have gone to court so far. In the first two cases, Hoover was found guilty of abusing the “one application per household” rule and in the other two, which are still in progress, the company is accused of failing to pursue nominated flight dates until it became too late to book.

The next hearing at St Helens County Court on Merseyside is scheduled for mid-July and another four test cases are expected to be heard later this year.