The Reward Collection Ltd v Whaleco Technology Ltd t/a Temu
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Commercial Court) |
| Judge | His Honour Judge Pearce |
| Neutral Citation | [2024] EWHC 2541 (Comm) |
| Date | 07 October 2024 |
| Year | 2024 |
| Counsel | Mr Henry Reid,Mr Andrew Lomas |
Neutral Citation Number: [2024] EWHC 2541 (Comm)
Claim No: CC-2024-MAN-000040
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
BUSINESS AND PROPERTY COURTS IN MANCHESTER
CIRCUIT COMMERCIAL COURT (KBD)
BETWEEN:
Before:
HIS HONOUR JUDGE PEARCE
(Sitting as a Judge of the High Court)
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THE REWARD COLLECTION LTD
Claimant/Respondent
-and-
WHALECO TECHNOLOGY LTD
t/a TEMU
Defendant/Applicant
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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
MR HENRY REID instructed by GUNNERCOOKE LLPfor the Claimant
MR ANDREW LOMAS instructed by ENYO LAW LLP for the Defendant
Hearing date: 19 July 2024
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1
Approved Judgment
This judgment was handed down remotely at 2.00pm on 7 October 2024 by circulation
to the parties or their representatives by e-mail and by release to the National Archives.
Note: references to the bundle served for the purpose of this application are in the form
“B***” where the asterisks represent the page number.
INTRODUCTION
1. The Claimant company provides marketing services for retailers and e-commerce
platforms. The Defendant, an Irish based company, operates a well-known e-
commerce platform (“Temu”), by which the products in particular of Chinese vendors
are offered for sale at discounted prices. Temu uses software called Impact to manage
its relationships with marketing companies.
2. It is the Claimant’s case that the parties entered into a contract pursuant to which the
Claimant would institute a promotional campaign for Temu. Such a campaign
commenced but the Defendant has, the Claimant contends, failed to pay sums due
pursuant to the contract. The Claimant sues on that contract, contending that four
invoices in the total sum of $4,091,238.709 issued between July and December 2023
are outstanding.
3. The Claimant has served the Defendant with the proceedings out of the jurisdiction,
contending that permission is not required because one or more of the provisions of
CPR6.33(2B) applies to the proceedings. The Defendant disputes this contention,
contending that the English court either has no jurisdiction to hear the claim or should
not exercise that jurisdiction and has applied for a declaration to that effect, with a
consequent order dismissing the claim. That application was heard before me on 19
July 2024 and this is my judgment on the application.
4. In this judgment, I shall refer to the parties as the Claimant and the Defendant
respectively, using the term “Temu” for the platform operated by the Defendant.
THE ISSUE IN BRIEF
5. Fundamental to this issue is whether the parties contracted on the terms alleged by the
Claimant, since those terms include the jurisdictional clauses upon which the
Claimant relies in support of the argument that CPR6.33(2B) applies. The Claimant’s
case is that, following communications between Mr James Bannerman, the Claimant’s
2
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