BRUSSELS TIMES - May 8 - Brussels' correctional court has ruled against dating site RichMeetBeautiful, declaring it guilty of "encouraging sexual immorality or prostitution". The site's owner, Sigurd Vedal, was dealt a suspended six-month prison sentence and ordered to pay ~€200K fine. The ruling follows a 2017 lawsuit after the site targeted students at the Free University of Brussels with controversial ads. The court slapped an additional €240K fine on the site's parent company, Digisec Media Limited, ordering it to pay an additional amount to the university for damages. The site remains blocked in Belgium.
7 posts categorized "RichMeetBeautiful"
Brussels Court Slaps Fine on RichMeetBeautiful Dating Site
| |
Belgium Seeks to Punish Owner of 'Sugar Daddy' Site
AGENCE PRESSE FRANCE - Apr 5 - Belgian prosecutors are seeking a suspended prison sentence for Sigurd Vedal, an entrepreneur accused of promoting prostitution through a dating site for rich men and young women - RichMeetBeautiful.com. He appeared in court on Thursday. In 2017, as students returned to the Free University of Brussels after their summer break, they were greeted by a truck carrying a mobile advertising hoarding. The poster showed a woman's bosom barely covered by a bra and the slogan: "Hey female students, improve your lifestyle, go out with a Sugar Daddy." The truck was seized after the university complained to the police, and Vedal has since been arrested and charged with "incitement to debauchery and prostitution". He insisted that he simply wanted to encourage customers to seek dates that were "out of the ordinary." In addition to a six-month suspended sentence, prosecutors asked that Vedal be fined 40K Eur and his company Digisec Media a further 250K Eur. The Belgian court will give its verdict on May 8. Vedal is also under investigation in France, accused of "aggravated pimping" after publicising a version of his site on a Paris campus.
by Matthieu Demeestere
See full article at The Jakarta Post
| |
RichMeetBeautiful Is In Legal Trouble In Belgium
THE BRUSSELS TIMES - Oct 5 - The trial of the company responsible for the site RichMeetBeautiful, and its boss Sigurd V., began last Friday before the 47th division of the Brussels Criminal Court. The site was allegedly publicly encouraging sexual immorality or prostitution and breached the law relating to the fight against sexism in public. Last year, RichMeetBeautiful released a campaign on the ULB campuses. The campaign encouraged female students, aged 18 to 26, called "sugar babies", to be supported by middle-aged and comfortably-off men, "sugar daddies", by meeting them on the site. Last March, the Belgian courts also ordered that the site be blocked by Belgian Internet Service Providers.
by Oscar Schneider
See full article at The Brussels Times
| |
RichMeetBeautiful Hopes To Recruit 100k 'Sugar Babies' From UK Universities
THESUN.CO.UK - Nov 11 - Huge adverts for RichMeetBeautiful show a couple cuddling with the caption "romance, passion and no student loan, go out with a sugar daddy". On their website the Norwegian company describes itself as a "sugar daddy and sugar baby dating site" but has been accused of encouraging prostitution and preying on the financial insecurity of students. The advertising campaign will target more than 12 universities for next three months and CEO Sigurd Vedal claims 75% of new signups are women, many of whom are aged between 18-26. As well as King's College London, the billboards will be displayed at the London School of Economics and The City Law School.
by George Sandeman
See full article at TheSun.co.uk
| |
Paris City Hall Condemns "Sugar Daddy" Mobile Advert
ASSOCIATED PRESS - Oct 26 - Paris city hall has called an ad for a dating site linking students with rich men and women "shameful," and said officials will work with police to remove it from the city. The RichMeetBeautiful site has been displaying a large mobile billboard across Paris, encouraging students to get in touch with "sugar daddies" and "sugar mamas" to subsidize their studies. It reads: "Romance, passion and no student loan, go out with a sugar daddy or sugar mama." Paris police said that they had opened an investigation and that the vehicle carrying the billboard had been stopped.
The full article was originally published at Lancaster Online, but is no longer available.
| |
'Sugar Daddy' Site RichMeetBeautiful Faces Legal Fight In Belgium
THE GUARDIAN - Sep 26 - Belgian ministers have said they will take legal action in an attempt to force a website that links young women and rich men to remove huge adverts near the country's universities. Trucks bearing large posters promoting RichMeetBeautiful, which describes itself as a "sugar daddy and sugar baby dating site", have appeared on the outskirts of campuses in Brussels in recent days. The website's CEO, Sigurd Vedal, rejected any link to prostitution, suggesting money matters always play a role in romantic relationships.
by Daniel Boffey
See full article at The Guardian
| |
'Sugar Daddy' Dating Ads 'Illegal' In Norway
NEWSINENGLISH - Sep 11 - A rolling billboard urging students to "Date a sugar daddy" has been ruled illegal, and ordered to be removed from the streets of Oslo. Not only does the ad violate the country's marketing laws, it violates a city law against rolling billboards. The billboard sparked criticism because it seemed to encourage young female students to date wealthy businessmen in return for shopping, travel or money. Sigurd Vedal, the man behind the online dating site advertised (RichMeetBeautiful.com), claims that the ad did not violate sexual equality laws because it was directed at "both women and men."
| |