The Supreme Court, which decided 43 cases in 2024, is to start hearing on 1 April a three-day long appeal in Johnson v FirstRand Bank Ltd [2024] EWCA Civ 1282. Car dealers who arranged finance for their customers received a secret commission from the lender. In the case of the lead claimant, the commission was £1,650 on the acquisition of a modest Suzuki Swift costing £6,499. The Court of Appeal held that the dealer owed a fiduciary duty to the purchaser. If upheld, the cost to lenders could be as much as £44bn, according to HSBC.
Group actions being pursued in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) have become fashionable. However, the first case to be tried was slung out. The class representative was pursuing compensation in excess of £1.1bn on behalf of up to 3.7m customers of BT. Simmons and Simmons saw off the entire claim, reported at
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