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Student competition jury member faces consumer complaints over telemarketing

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Key Points
  • A student competition jury member's company faces consumer complaints over misleading telemarketing.
  • Authorities have criticized the company, with 350 reports since 2020 and a case involving a smoke detector contract.
  • School officials and the jury member have responded, with the school distancing itself from jury selection.

The competition resembles SVT's Draknästet, where students present their business ideas to an investor jury and can win 50,000 kronor. One of the entrepreneurs on the jury has repeatedly received criticism from authorities for misleading telemarketing. Details of consumer complaints against the jury member's company include a case highlighted by SVT where a woman thought she was only agreeing to more information but instead received a smoke detector by mail and was bound to a two-year contract for 7,000 kronor.

Complaints have continued to stream in, according to Ekot's review, and the Consumer Agency has received 350 reports against the company since 2020. School and owner responses to the controversy show Ali Ghafori, chairman of Svea Partners and also CEO of the high school, does not want to participate in an interview. Anna-Karin Sundmark, the school's principal, says they gladly let students participate in various competitions but cannot take responsibility for who the jury members are.

I didn't know this... And I'm almost starting to wonder what kind of school I'm attending now. It's really strange and worrying that they think such people are the best role models and entrepreneurs for young people.

A student, Student

The identified jury member states that the many reports against his company are not unnatural given the business's growth.

But we do not use such people as role models; we have let some students participate in a competition.

Anna-Karin Sundmark, School principal
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Student competition jury member faces consumer complaints over telemarketing | Reed News