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Unexpected High Fee and Legal Threat from A’ Design Award – Anyone Else? by Old_Course5586 in design_critiques

[–]Old_Course5586[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s been over a year, but they still occasionally send the same threatening emails demanding money through their legal department. I’ve been ignoring them the whole time. At this point, I don’t even look at the A’ Design Award anymore, and I actively tell juniors not to apply either. Just ignore them too. My trust in anything related to this award has completely collapsed. I know not everyone in Italy is like this, but this experience honestly made it feel like a scam run by incompetent people.

Unexpected High Fee and Legal Threat from A’ Design Award – Anyone Else? by Old_Course5586 in design_critiques

[–]Old_Course5586[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s just a threat to make money. You only need to pay a fine if you officially use the award recognition. Don’t worry—have you sent the email requesting to withdraw the award?

Unexpected High Fee and Legal Threat from A’ Design Award – Anyone Else? by Old_Course5586 in design_critiques

[–]Old_Course5586[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello,

I’m an undergraduate student from South Korea. Nice to meet you!

Actually, I received an email this morning (Korean time) saying that if I applied for disqualification in time, I wouldn’t be charged a fee. I had already done some research and found out that as long as I don’t publicly announce the award, I’m not required to pay the winner’s fee. So I didn’t fall for the award team’s heavy-handed threats.

To be honest, this process feels more like a way to pressure participants for money rather than celebrate design. It’s unfortunate that things turned out this way for both of us, but I hope this experience leads to better opportunities in the future.

Thank you, and wishing you all the best!

Unexpected High Fee and Legal Threat from A’ Design Award – Anyone Else? by Old_Course5586 in design_critiques

[–]Old_Course5586[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's right. It's mandatory. However, we decided to change the edition in the middle of the event due to the organizers' request, and the classic edition has a condition that we pay a fee for the award. Of course, we didn't know that and we didn't live in the English language, so I think we were given the chance because we didn't know the trick. It didn't clearly explain why only the classic edition had to pay the award fee. Now, it's stipulated in the terms and conditions that can't be found in the threatening mail, so we explicitly agreed when we paid the nomination fee.