The father, who runs a driveway cleaning business called EasyJetwash, is facing legal threats from easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
Jozsef Spekker, 43, offers services such as pressure washing drives, patios and conservatories for around £100. Although it has been running its own business for three years, it is now under pressure from easyGroup, which is owned by budget airline tycoon Sir Stelios. The billionaire’s company demanded that Jozsef change the brand or risk a costly lawsuit.
Jozsef, from Staffordshire, said: “They explained how my branding was very damaging to their business. They wanted me to remove all branding from Facebook and social media and shut them down. If I do what they want me to do, I have to close the shop, I would have to start again.”
And he added: “The first two years I spent a lot of money on ads. I have hundreds of videos on YouTube, a ten-minute video takes a long time to edit. I have at least 160 videos. People like to watch them. It’s mainly the word easy, which is the problem, I I call myself EasyJetwash,” reports the Mirror.
“If you go through most of my social posts, I capitalize Easy and Jet. I try to make it clear that we have nothing to do with easyJet. They stick to the word ‘easy’ and say I’m trying to confuse their customers into believing I’m part of their groups, I look very, very different.
“All the shops I do don’t offer. The whole idea of calling my business EasyJetwash is that I’ve made hard physical work very easy with the right equipment and it’s really simple and easy. They[easyJet)don’tofferanyexteriorcleaningorbuildingrestorationwhichI[easyJet)don’ttofferanyexteriorcleaningorbuildingrestorationwhichIdo[easyJet)”nenabízímžádnéčištěníexteriéruneborestaurováníbudovcoždělám[easyJet)don’tofferanyexteriorcleaningorbuildingrestorationwhichIdo
“That’s why my trademark was accepted. They didn’t challenge my trademark. I’m absolutely terrified. Who am I compared to a multi-billion dollar corporation? I just paid £800 on my credit card a few weeks ago and I have no savings, I can’t fight them in court.”
After gaining approval for his company’s trademark in April 2022, Jozsef, a Hungarian-born business owner who suffers from degenerative arthritis, is dealing with the stress of a potential legal battle. “I’m afraid I’m going to lose everything,” the Newcastle-under-Lyme man admitted, saying his business was vastly different from easyGroup’s services.
“Not only the store, but also the look of the business and the way EasyJetwash is displayed. When I registered as a trademark and it was accepted, I was 100 percent sure that I had all the rights to my business, which is my only income.”
In an effort to secure funds for any upcoming legal bills, Jozsef created a GoFundMe page. He expressed his concerns, saying: “I’m scared of losing everything to be honest. With GoFundMe I might find a way to fight this. I can’t afford someone to represent me. I’m just a guy. People say I can this case win.
“It’s not only ridiculous, it’s heartless. If you have money, you can sue anyone. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be tough.”
But Sir Stelios hit back, accusing Jozsef of being a “brand thief”.
He said: “From my perspective I think Mr Spekker is one of the most calculated and beneficial brand thieves I have come across in the 30 years I have been doing this job.
“Not only did he register the domain easyjetwash.com, which clearly contains the word easyJet, but he also did very clever search engine optimization to get very high in Google search results for the search term ‘easyjet wash’.
“So Spekker is now running a very profitable business by getting more and more customers who fall for the intentional confusion he creates online. Don’t believe him he doesn’t have the money to hire a lawyer. His problem is no lawyer will tell him. ” that what he is doing is legal.
“While there are some people who say we don’t have a monopoly on the word easy (which I disagree with), Spekker is the first person ever to say we don’t have a monopoly on the word easyJet. we will clearly win easyJet’s own word in court.”