An Oxford man is considering taking multinational Kodak to court after the firm made a mistake on its consumer website.

David McManus, who writes the Internet column for the Oxford Mail's sister paper, The Oxford Times, was one of about 5,000 people who ordered a digital camera, advertised at £100, from the company's website, www.kodak.com

He gave his credit card number and received an official e-mail receipt from the company, giving him an order number and thanking him for his custom.

But he was surprised to receive another e-mail rejecting his order and informing him the camera price should have read £329. The e-mail offered him ten per cent off his next purchase as compensation.

The rejection e-mail also said: "All orders placed from our website legally constitute offers to purchase from us, just like taking goods to the till in a retail store. As such, we are entitled to accept or reject offers from customers."

But Mr McManus said: "They made an offer and I accepted it. That is a contract. I agreed a deal. They are breaking it.

"I am considering taking them to the small claims court. After all, if it were the other way round and I changed my mind after giving my credit card number for a purchase, I don't think many retailers would agree to cancel the contract."

A spokesman for Kodak said: "We are very embarrassed about this, but it was an honest mistake and we have offered a ten per cent discount to people who received receipts.

"We maintain that there is no contract until money changes hands. Because we had not taken any money from credit card accounts, no money had changed hands."

A spokesman for the Which? Legal Service said: "In our opinion there was a contract here. In their own e-mail Kodak refer to the 'contract' themselves.

"Also, all three elements of a legal contract are present: an 'offer' for a specified price, a 'consideration' in that Mr McManus gave his credit card number, and an 'acceptance' in that Kodak issued a receipt for the order."