Companies throughout the State are being billed £102.85 (€131) each by a Dublin firm with which they have no contract.

The invoices were sent by EU Digital, a firm which claims to be "Ireland's premier Internet Business Agency", for the management of websites set up by it. The sites purport to represent the companies involved.

EU Digital issued a mailshot to some 13,000 companies informing them that it had independently created websites claiming to represent each of them. It has confirmed that it issued invoices to firms which did not reply to the mailshot.

The company, based on Sir John Rogerson's Quay, did not reveal how many invoices it sent out, but it is believed that many small and medium-sized firms were involved.

Members of Dublin Chamber of Commerce were warned this week by Adnet, a company which manages webpages free of charge for the chamber that "companies are being invoiced who have no knowledge of having subscribed to or agreed to this service".

The warning did not name EU Digital but advised companies against assuming "that payment is due merely because a company has your details".

An EU Digital director, Mr Conor Glass, said the company propositioned all 13,000 companies to pay an annual "hosting charge" of £102.85 (£85 plus 21 per cent VAT) to manage each site. The proposition was contained in a brochure and covering letter signed by another company director, Mr Ian M. Glass, which stated that EU Digital "has built an Internet website that is fully operational". Businesses were also sent a "faxback" form, which, in addition to asking for credit card details, said: "We will be invoicing you soon for the hosting charge of £85 + VAT for your FREE website." The final line of the form, which was printed in smaller text than on the invoice notice, offered firms the opportunity to advise EU Digital to cancel the website set up by EU Digital in their name by ticking a box before returning the form.

When contacted, Mr Conor Glass confirmed that businesses which had not returned the form or had not contacted EU Digital to cancel the website were invoiced.

It is understood, however, that none of these firms would be legally obliged to pay as no formal contract had been entered into. For a valid contract to apply both parties must freely enter into it. Asked about his business strategy, Mr Conor Glass said: "We decided we wanted to take an aggressive approach to market. Rightly or wrongly that was the tack that we decided to use."

The Northern Ireland-based marketing information company which provided the information on the 13,000 firms said yesterday that it had severed its links with EU Digital. "We supplied the list as standard mailing list for the promotion of other websites," said the managing director of IDS Direct Marketing, Mr Martin Crilly. "We do not authorise, nor would we authorise any mailing list to be made available for the invoicing of any organisations on this list."