Johnson Law Group secures another successful PCP Finance County Court Judgement

Johnson Law Group has successfully secured another win at trial against Santander Consumer (UK) Plc for a PCP Car Finance Claim at Middlesbrough County Court, following previous success at another trial just two weeks prior. The Claimant was represented by one of Johnson Law Group’s solicitors at the hearing who conducted the advocacy for the trial and prepared all skeleton arguments and submissions to the Court.

The claim involved a scaled commission arrangement, which is a type of discretionary commission arrangement (DCA). This is where the motor dealership was able to select the interest rate from a scale and determine the rate of interest payable under the Claimant's finance agreement. The dealership would then receive a commission from Santander based on the interest charged.

The Claimant gave oral evidence at the court hearing and contended throughout that they were not informed that commissions would be paid on their finance agreement. The Defendant’s Witness was not present during the trial.

The Court found in favour of the Claimant and concluded that the finance agreement was unfair within the meaning of Section 140A Consumer Credit Act 1974. The Court found that the DCA was a direct incentive and not disclosed to the Claimant at the time. They also did not consider that the documentation which stated ‘we may pay commission’, was transparent or clear to the Claimant and did specifically state whether a commission was actually going to be payable. The Court concluded that this had an adverse impact on the Claimant.

The Claimant was awarded the full commission of £1,069.18 that was paid without their knowledge plus interest. The Defendants choice to defend this matter all the way to trial is in stark contrast to the guidance that FCA’s Rina Maher recently claimed at the annual Legal Futures Conference had been given to lenders, which was to settle these cases.

Jamie Patton, Managing Director of Johnson Law Group, said: “Again, the banks continue to fight these cases all the way, knowing they will lose and seemingly ignoring the guidance from their regulator. More importantly, every trial win where our clients are awarded the full amount of the commission that was paid, is just another nail in the coffin of the FCA’s proposed redress scheme that is looking to pay out much lower compensation to consumers.”

Johnson Law Group is a Manchester-headquartered firm of solicitors regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, specialising in consumer and group litigation claims. The firm has a network of offices including locations in London, Houston, New York and Chicago.

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