Conflict of interest? Duty to disclose?

[GuestMN]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MN

I own a photo booth company. I wanted to participate in a festival put on by a non-profit organization (selling souvenir photos). In order to participate I had to fully detail what I would be selling at the event. I did so and was approved. I also spoke with the Executive Director and her assistant multiple times about the use of their logo and was told that to use the logo I would have to pay them 20% of sales. I agreed. I also paid over $1200 for my double booth space in a specific location. The booth size I ended up with was wrong and I had to be relocated in a much less desirable spot. But that is not the worst of it.

When one of my workers returned from the restroom she informed me that the festival itself had a huge FREE photo booth pavilion set up. Never did anyone I talked to say anything about having a booth. The only thing they said was what a great idea it was and it sounded really cool. Obviously, had I known they were giving away what I was paying to be there to sell I never would have rented the booth in the first place. After the weekend I asked them for a refund, they declined saying that I should have attended in past years and then I would know what they offer. I will say I poured over the vendor lists and there was nothing listed anywhere that would have indicated there would be a photo booth. I think my next step is a letter to the board, though I am not hopeful about resolution there.

Is this an ethical conflict of interest on their part?
Did they have a duty to disclose this?
Would this be an appropriate issue to pursue in small claims court?

Thank you in advance.

 

[justalayman]

You say you pored over the vendor list but to me, a free service provided by the entity putting on the event would not be considered a vendor.


Are you saying there was no advertisement anywhere the festival would have a free photo booth? Seems like it would be odd there isn't since the purpose of having free services such as that is specifically to draw people to the event.

 

[Taxing Matters]

Is this an ethical conflict of interest on their part?
Did they have a duty to disclose this?
Would this be an appropriate issue to pursue in small claims court?

I don't see a conflict of interest here. As for a duty to disclose, generally in commercial business dealings there is no affirmative duty to disclose information. What the parties cannot do, however, is commit fraud or misrepresentation. Had you asked if any other photo booths would be there and they had said no you’d have a decent claim for fraud or misrepresentation. So, did you ask that question? If not, I think you’ll have a hard time winning on this.

 

[GuestMN]

You say you pored over the vendor list but to me, a free service provided by the entity putting on the event would not be considered a vendor.


Are you saying there was no advertisement anywhere the festival would have a free photo booth? Seems like it would be odd there isn't since the purpose of having free services such as that is specifically to draw people to the event.

I should clarify, I went over the vendor list and the map of all the booths at the event. Not a single space was labeled with photos, photo booth, or any company name that you could draw the conclusion would be photo related.

 

[GuestMN]

I don't see a conflict of interest here. As for a duty to disclose, generally in commercial business dealings there is no affirmative duty to disclose information. What the parties cannot do, however, is commit fraud or misrepresentation. Had you asked if any other photo booths would be there and they had said no you’d have a decent claim for fraud or misrepresentation. So, did you ask that question? If not, I think you’ll have a hard time winning on this.

Sadly, I did not. And if there had been other PAID photo booths I wouldn't even be complaining right now. Competition is competition, and I'm comfortable with how my technology stacks up. I didn't really care if there were other paid booths, I looked because I wanted to know, but competition wasn't going to make me change my mind. FREE though isn't competition, especially not when it's from the same entity charging me to sell. When I think of it like hot dogs, or t shirts or whatever...I can't imagine they would undercut a vendor in such a way.

 

[justalayman]

I should clarify, I went over the vendor list and the map of all the booths at the event. Not a single space was labeled with photos, photo booth, or any company name that you could draw the conclusion would be photo related.

So you assumed whatever notation made to identify a vendor was legally dependable and complete?

So did the sponsor advertise free photos anywhere?

 

[GuestMN]

So you assumed whatever notation made to identify a vendor was legally dependable and complete?

So did the sponsor advertise free photos anywhere?

Not that I saw, I had checked out their website and facebook page, just to get an overall feel of the event, before filling out our application. Not necessarily seeing if they were doing it for free. But seeing what it was all about, # of attendees, events during festival, etc. I shared their posts as the event drew closer...nothing ever said anything about their photo booth. There were certainly other, more pressing things for them to address. I guess had I been the ED on the phone and someone was calling me about selling photos I would have asked them if they knew we already provided one for free.