dreamstime_xs_210014586
© Nikolai Mentuk

DSV has fought back in the ‘bait and switch’ case against it, claiming its offered deal was never legally binding. 

In a lawsuit filed last month, US rose farmer Passion Growers claims that, in July 2023, DSV Air & Sea (Miami) induced the company to transfer its freight forwarding contract for shipments from Ecuador to the US exclusively to DSV. They reached agreement for one year.

Passion, happy with the new arrangement, dismissed its other freight forwarders – and everything was good for five months – in December, DSV “attempted to alter the terms of the agreement”.

It is claimed DSV tried to renegotiate, as well as expand the agreement to include Passion Growers’ shipments out of Colombia, which Passion Growers declined and claimed DSV had reneged on its agreement. 

Now, DSV has filed a motion to dismiss the case. Citing legal precedents, it claims the case was borne of “disappointed commercial expectations”. It said the claim DSV had failed to meet contractual obligations was wrong, and pointed to an email – heavily redacted – which it says sets out the terms of the freight forwarding agreement, but clearly states it is “non-legally binding”. 

DSV claimed: “Nothing could be more fair than to be upfront and advise in writing a business associate that they could not rely upon any such representations as legally binding. Same cannot serve as therefore for a deceptive act since it was fully disclosed.” 

It also claimed Passion Growers never confirmed the deal, saying ” [The] plaintiff is relying upon a verbal agreement purportedly entered into on June 28, 2023, yet not to be completed until July 31, 2024, (more than one year later). Again, while plaintiff contends that the oral agreement was memorialised in a July 21, 2023 email, same was never acknowledged or confirmed by both parties; a requirement under Florida law to circumvent application of the statute of frauds.” 

The case continues. 

Comment on this article


You must be logged in to post a comment.