14/11/2022 RUSSELLS: ART COLLECTOR'S SUCCESSFUL APPEAL AGAINST DIGITAL AUCTION PLATFORM IS A LANDMARK MOMENT FOR BRITISH CONSUMERS

LONDON,Nov. 14, 2022/PRNewswire/ -- The UK Court of Appeal has judged for the first time on a case involving NFTs in a dispute between the digital art collectorAmir Soleymaniand the online trading platform Nifty Gateway regarding a$650,000 Beeple NFT.

After the Court of Appeal granted Soleymani permission to appeal inJuly 2022, the art collector received a favourable ruling on 6 October, which impacts every British internet user purchasing goods online under UK consumer laws.

The decision is ground-breaking, protecting consumers from the imposition of automatic foreign arbitration when they want to dispute an online transaction, which happened when Soleymani disputed an online auction on Nifty Gateway and theNew York-based platform began arbitral proceedings inNew York.

The trading platform, which specialises in digital art and NFTs, sought to avoid English consumer laws and the jurisdiction of the English Courts by imposing aNew York-based arbitration, treating him as professional as opposed to a consumer and thereby blocking Soleymani's protection under English consumer laws.

The disputed auction happened inMay 2021over Abundance, an NFT that Ethereum's co-founderTaylor Gerringpurchased for$1.2mon Nifty Gateway. Soleymani came third in the auction, but Nifty Gateway claimed that under its terms and conditions, he was liable to pay the total sum of his highest bid in return for the third edition of the NFT.

Arts

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russells-art-collectors-successful-appeal-060000968.html