WSBneed an Advise of any legal claims it may have against Yeshas and Efficient-Tech.

Ali is the Chief Operating Officer of Wickwar School of Business (WSB). As the IT equipment at WSB needed an update, Ali had been discussing options with a few vendors and had received two offers. Being a very keen environmentalist however, Ali wanted to find more energy efficient equipment than proposed in the offers. He asked his friend Yeshas, a highly qualified IT specialist, for advice. Yeshas recommended Efficient-Tech, an IT company specialising in supplying IT equipment to businesses. Yeshas told Ali that "Efficient Tech is widely known to be the leader in providing energy efficient equipment. I have closely looked at all the equipment they sell and can confirm that it is as energy efficient as it gets." On the basis of this advice, on the 1st of January, Ali emailed the general enquiries email of EfficientTech and received a reply from Isabella, Efficient-Tech's sales manager, offering to discuss the various options they offer over the phone the same day. During the phone conversation, Ali settled for one particular specification which would provide new desktop PCs, Audio-Video equipment for the lecture halls, laptops and as new servers. Isabella told Ali that she would send a firm offer by post which he should sign and return if he wanted to finalise the arrangement. Just before the phone call ended, Ali asked Isabella about the energy rating of the proposed new equipment. Isabella told him that all of Efficient-Tech's systems would be "top-notch energy saving systems - best in the country." She further stated "We only source the most energy-efficient equipment available on the market." The following day, the contract arrived to WSB by post. It contained a detailed break-down of the equipment to be provided. The total cost would be 650,000 and the contract stated that Efficient-Tech's terms and conditions applied. Ali searched the internet for the terms and conditions, and when he could not find them he called Efficient-Tech's customer support number. The customer support representative informed Ali that the company considered its terms and conditions to be a 'business secret' and did not share them with anyone who did not already have a signed contract with the company. Ali signed the contract and mailed it to Efficient-Tech's business address later that day. The new IT system was installed a two weeks later. After 4 months, Ali noticed that the WSB's electricity bill had increased from 20,000 per quarter to 50,000 per quarter as a result of increased electricity consumption.

The only change made to the WSB office was the new IT system. Ali mentioned this to one of his colleagues, and was told that Efficient-Tech was widely known for supplying inefficient IT systems. Having investigated this further, Ali has now discovered that almost all customers of Efficient-Tech have had similar experiences and that none of the equipment they sell is energy efficient. He therefore emailed Isabella to express his disappointment and told her that he would not have accepted her offer, had it not been for her assurances about the energy-efficiency of Efficient-Tech's system. Isabella informed Ali that Clause 18 of the company's standard terms and conditions stated: "The customer acknowledges that in entering this contract, customer has not relied wholly or partly on any statement or representation made by or on behalf of Efficient-Tech". She therefore denied all liability. On the 15th of January, Parliament passed a new law whereby businesses that used more than 15 Kilowatts of electricity a week would be fined 1000 for each extra kilowatt used. While WSB was only consuming 10 Kilowatts a week before the new IT equipment was installed, its consumption has increased to 25 Kilowatts a week since. This has resulted in WSB being issued a fine of 240, 000. Moreover, it has cost WSB 500,000 to replace the IT equipment with a more efficient one. You may assume that while all other losses were foreseeable, the fine of 240,000 was not. Advise WSB of any legal claims it may have against Yeshas and Efficient-Tech.