If I Pay a Telecom Company To Advertise For Me And They Don’t, Can I Sue Them – Barefoot Lawyers- Uganda

Kapata, a Ugandan music promoter and radio DJ owns an app called LaVIBE, where he promotes local music for those artists who have paid him. People can download and listen to the mixes using the app. In order to promote this app, Kapata decided to pay Mudundo Telecom to advertise LaVIBE in caller tunez for their calls. In fact, he paid 3 million shillings as an initial deposit to run the advert for 2 weeks and then see how the public would respond to his adverts. However, Mudundo Telecom only run the ads for 2 days before switching to Anti-Coronavirus caller tunes about washing hands.

Kapata was pissed about this and even asked them to run his remaining two weeks because he wanted to target people at home making calls, but Mudundo telecom insisted that since FX BANK paid more money and they wanted to contribute to the fight against Corona. They even offered to give Kapata a refund, but Kapata wants them to suffer for this insult. He is even willing to sue them to the end of the earth until they beg for his mercy.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I PAY FOR A SERVICE TO BE GIVEN?

Once you have paid for a service like Kapata did, and your terms or money are accepted by the other person, you have entered into a contract with that person. By law, this contract is binding on both of you. Therefore, once Kapata and Mudundo exchanged money for caller tunez, there was a binding contract between them. This means that Mudundo telecom had a duty to play Kapata’s caller tunez.

WHAT DO YOU DO NEXT WHEN THE OTHER PERSON FAILS YOU AFTER YOU PAID?

Because Kapata had already paid the money that Mudundo Telecom asked for, then Mudundo Telecom was the one left to perform its side of the contract (their end of the deal). If this is not done, in contract law, we say there is a breach of the contract, which means breaking the terms of the contract.

If Kapata made it clear that he wanted the caller tunez in a specified time, then he can require that Mudundo resume playing the caller tunez before that time elapses (This is called specifically performing your part of the contract).

Alternatively, if Kapata agrees to a refund, then Mudundo can refund the initial payment, if kapata has not made any losses because of what happened (This is called rescission [cancelling the contract]). However, if Kapata feels that he has made losses and his business prospects have suffered, then he can just sue for damages for the breach of the contract because refunding of his money does not repair the damage.

This means that if Kapata suffered any loss such as loss of income or clients, he can sue Mudundo Telecom. However, the law requires that he shows some proof of the loss. Some of the proof of the contract includes a receipt from Mudondo, a cheque or proof of money transfer to Mudundo.

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