The City regulator is trying to get the only consumer group arguing for higher motor finance scandal payouts thrown out of court, alleging that its co-founders have not been transparent about their funding and potential conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n
The accusations, laid out in legal filings on Wednesday, are the latest controversy in the long-running saga surrounding mis-sold car loans, with fears of large payouts having resulted in heavy lobbying <\/a>by banks and a controversial intervention by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.<\/a><\/p>\n The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is now urging judges to dismiss a string of legal challenges<\/a>, including by Consumer Voice, \u201cbecause it has (still) failed to give a full and frank explanation of the nature of its own interest \u2013 and that of its solicitors, Courmacs Legal.\u201d<\/p>\n Consumer Voice, founded by ex-Which? staffers Nikki Stopford and Alex Neill in 2023, is pushing for bigger compensation for borrowers of car loans,<\/a> who were overcharged when lenders were paying commission to car dealerships between 2007 and 2024.<\/p>\n That would mean far bigger bills for specialist lenders and big banks, including Lloyds Banking Group, Santander, and the finance arms of carmakers like Volkswagen and Mercedez-Benz, who are currently on the hook for a \u00a39.1bn compensation scheme.<\/p>\n Consumer Voice argues that the FCA scheme will be low-balling victims \u2013 who will get an average payout of \u00a3830 per mis-sold loan \u2013 and accused the FCA of deferring to lenders\u2019 concerns about big bills at the expense of consumer protection.<\/p>\n In legal filings, the FCA suggested Consumer Voice was not being honest about its business model and relationship to Courmacs. \u201cIt has failed to disclose details of, or explain, its funding of its application, or the nature of its relationship with its solicitors,\u201d beyond saying that Courmacs was offering representation on a pro-bono basis, the legal filings said.<\/p>\n Both firms, \u201coperate for profit in the sphere of claims management\u201d, the FCA said, adding that Courmacs had previously hired Consumer Voice to conduct consumer research on its behalf. The consumer group \u201ctherefore has commercial incentives of its own.\u201d<\/p>\n Consumer Voice partners with law firms, with an aim to help consumers \u201cget back money they\u2019re owed from rule-breaking companies\u201d. It has promoted claims against the likes of Amazon, Facebook, Mastercard, Apple iCloud, and Sony PlayStation, and makes money by doing communications work for law firms to raise awareness of their claims. It also receives a commission when its members join one of the law firms\u2019 cases, according to its website.<\/a><\/p>\n Courmacs, based in Blackburn, is providing pro bono services in the case against the FCA. Ultimately, larger payouts for consumers will boost Courmacs\u2019 earnings, with the firm taking up to 30% of client settlements.<\/p>\n The FCA accused Consumer Voice of having \u201cfailed to be candid\u201d, and claimed it \u201carguably has misrepresented\u201d why it was bringing the case.<\/p>\n It said the two firms were \u201carguably not aligned with those of consumers\u201d and urged judges to \u201crefuse permission to Consumer Voice to pursue its application\u201d<\/p>\n Neill said it was \u201cdisgraceful that a public body would include allegations in legal pleadings despite having been repeatedly informed that they are untrue. Public authorities should be held to the highest standards of accuracy and fairness, not make claims that risk misleading the court and the public.\u201d<\/p>\n She stressed that Consumer Voice \u201cmake no money whatsoever from car finance mis-selling referrals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City regulator is trying to get the only consumer group arguing for higher motor finance scandal payouts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-680975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}