A diving specialist who has been displaying an Atol logo on its website without holding a licence has promised to remove the image.
Diving World, which specialises in live-aboard holidays, said it would ask its website designers to remove the image this week.
Company director Yassin Oweiss said originally did have an Atol licence, but dropped it about three years ago.
The company’s website describes itself as “operators” of liveaboards in the Red Sea. But Oweiss said he continued to display the logo because it was acting as a retail agent for Atol holders, which he said he initially believed made it legal to use the logo.
However, he accepted he had been informed by the Civil Aviation Authority that he should remove it around November last year.
Oweiss said the logo was still displayed because a series of management and organisational changes at the company had been higher priorities than removing the image.
The issue is believed to have came to light after a competitor complained to trading standards about Diving World using the logo.
The row comes amid Aito’s ‘rogue trader’ campaign, which is encouraging members to report companies trading without any bonding, or wrongly displaying consumer protection logos.
An Aito spokesman said the case illustrated the difficulty members had competing against companies who misused Atol logos.
Trading standards has not taken action against Diving World, which the spokesman said showed how the authorities were failing to enforce the law.
Click here to view original article by Chris Gray, TTG Live, Monday 26th July, 2010
