Originally Posted by
ladi
They can always sue him in private court. Force him to deliver or return the money. Of course there are terms and conditions of Kickstarter. But parts of them might be overturned by courts. Especially if backers try to argue he was fraudulently misrepresenting possible risks and the current state of development in his kickstarter campaign.
Even if he would win this in the end. If only a couple of backers want out it would be way cheaper for him just to return their money instead of taking the risk of a lawsuit and the cost of having to pay a lawyer.
PS: Just writing "no refund, no guarantee" does not always save you from legal actions. If you sell a "5 year old bike, no refund, no guarantee" and the buyer later finds out it is actually 10 years old, you're screwed and have to refund them!
That hasn't worked out well for people trying to sue Kickstarter or Igg because they are not the actual "sellers", they are a middleman. But they are the ones with deep pockets. Suing the developer, assuming he has run out of money, is pointless. There would be no way to enforce any judgment since he would have insufficient assets. Furthermore, the language is clear in crowdfunding that you are backing "development" which may or may not lead to a product. The Helix has been "developed" so as regards the t&c he has fulfilled the conditions of "sale". People who backed Helix were NOT purchasing a product, they were funding an inventor's process of developing a concept. People have tried to sue and tried to get refunds and it generally does not work; if it did, it would undermine the entire concept of crowdfunding.