Alternatives to ShareIt/MyCommerce/Digital River

[grujicd]

There's a list of documents supplied to UK government by Digital River.

https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history

On 1 October director was changed from John Murray to Keith Alan Bush, who was CFO prior to that. So there's a change as we were already in this drama.

What's more interesting is that there's 51 page document made on 8 August, "Registration of charge". I tried to read it but it's almost impossible for layman to understand it. It lists all Digital River subsidiaries as "Chargors", including Digital River Gmbh.

> A chargor (an individual) is granting a legal charge to a chargee (a company).

The other party in this document is Cerberus Business Finance Agency, NY.

It seems that Digital River borrowed from Cerberus and other parties on multiple occasions since 2021, and now this is fifth agreement. I have no idea what this contract means, does it mean that DR will pay debt to Cerberus before all other obligations, even in the event of default ? It's hard to tell from such long legal document.

Anyway, it's hard to imagine that Digital River survives this as majority of vendors moved off their platform. There will be no more revenue, while costs will continue to accumulate. Foreclosure seems like a likely scenario, with limited financial data we have. If that happens main question is whether there will be any funds remaining to be paid to us, little vendors. But maybe I'm just spreading FUD, I'm totally out of my league here.

What's worse, it's not only that we will loose that income. Depending on jurisdiction, if you created invoices this income is already treated as received for tax purposes, so it will be treated like you made a profit and it will be taxed. It's like that in Serbia. And it's not a trivial task to cancel these tax obligations, could be that court ruling on bankruptcy proceedings might be needed for that.

[jabakobob]

I talked to a german lawyer, and as far as I understand here are the options we have:

1) Request a "Mahnbescheid". You can do this yourself, without attorney, you just have to pay some fees. If Digital River doesn't dispute it after 2 weeks, you can send an enforcement order, if they don't dispute that either you get a "title". You can use this title to get what is owed, but you have to first figure out where Digital River has their assets. The only thing I know is the Irish bank account that they have been paying us with. I doubt there is anything of value in their (presumably empty) German offices. Getting money from an Irish bank with a German title is possible, but takes longer.

2) File a civil suit. You obviously need to hire an attorney for this. If Digital River disputes the Mahnbescheid, this is the only option. Civil suit takes at least a year and "several thousand euros" in legal fees and attorney fees. If you win, you can get your money like in step 1.

The big problem is how to get your money even if you win. If the bank account is empty, and the "Gerichtsvollzieher" fails to get any money, then you can request the court to start bankruptcy proceedings ("Insolvenzantrag"). This doesn't cost anything (the government pays for it), but you'll only get a fraction of your debt, and if Digital River GmbH doesn't have anything, you won't get anything.

There isn't really an advantage in filing a collective suit vs. individual suits. Someone has to pay for the attorney. The only advantage of collective action is information (eg. if one of us is successful with the "Mahnbescheid", or somehow discovers a bank account that isn't empty, sharing this information could help others get their money.)

[grujicd]

Altough this is good information, and thank you for that, this all looks like a process where we could loose even more money, without a known probability of getting any. Especially if we're not based in Germany, or even in EU like in my case.

[alexcmn1]

I believe that the only chance is to involve a prominent politician who would want to benefit from an international scandal...

[grujicd]

If enough media wrote about this, politicians will come. I guess for now it's just a "payment delay" without much direct evidence, helped by Digital River not giving any kind of info. It's yet to become a full scandal that will attract media, but by that time money will be drained to another entity.

[PSP]

Unfortunately, we've been affected by this as well and lost all revenue for 10 weeks (July and August). In September, we switched to Fastspring. I believe it's not possible to pursue a collective lawsuit, as this is a B2B relationship, not B2C.

Antoni Ożyński
www.PSPaudioware.com

[hobnob]

This can't be the case - their support is very vague, and they never answer the actual question. e.g. when will July sales be paid?
Response: Oh, we'll send that to our internal team and put your case on hold and charge you 1/2 hour for that response.

If they knew they would say on a certain date but you need to jump through these hoops first. surely that can't be that incompetent?

[grujicd]

I just saw that my "close account" request that was sent 10 days ago, i.e. much before new contract started - has 0.72 "hours worked"

[alexcmn1]

>If enough media wrote about this, politicians will come.

There should be another way to demonstrate the scale of the problem. If I would live in Germany, I would hop in the car and together with other victims visited above mentioned offices, together, to demonstrate a little crowd, make some photos aahead of the doors and send them to journalists and politicians.

[sft234]

I just saw that my "close account" request that was sent 10 days ago, i.e. much before new contract started - has 0.72 "hours worked"

These thieves have charged us 1 hour of support (= $185) for the lousy answer below and nothing happened, no solution, no payment, nothing! MyCommerce is a gang of criminals!

Please know that we are fully aware of the situation and are working diligently to resolve these issues as quickly as possible. Our team is investigating the cause of these delays to ensure they address them effectively and prevent such occurrences.

We understand how important these payments are for you and your business. We are committed to ensuring that all outstanding payments are processed and that our communication with you is clear and timely moving forward. We appreciate your long-standing partnership and your trust in us over the years. Rest assured we are taking your concerns very seriously and trying to rectify this situation.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this. We are committed to keeping you informed every step of the way and are here to support you in any way we can.

[Tone2 Synthesizers]

[sft234]

I just saw that my "close account" request that was sent 10 days ago, i.e. much before new contract started - has 0.72 "hours worked"

I fear that when you close the account then also all contracts may become inactive and so they'll not even be obligated anymore to pay out. Maybe that's their strategy to collect money... so collect the owed money from those that closed the account

[firepile]

https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/10/16/ ... r-runs-dry

[quikquak]

For those that missed it:-

https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/15/ ... dry_hasnt/

"The [DR] law firm says that Digital River presently doesn't consider merchant debt claims to be valid obligations. The note reads, "I am writing on behalf of my law firm’s client, Digital River, regarding the inquiry you submitted to Digital River’s Solution Center."

[Christian67587]

We area also affected. Would it help to use the refund feature in the status page to refund customers who used credit cards?

I would contact them and say if they get a refund, they could order again with a new processor to help us.