Gough Square’s team of financial services barristers regularly advise on investment and insurance mis-selling. We provide expert advice on compliance with the Insurance (Conduct of Business) Rules (“ICOB”) and the Insurance (Conduct of Business) Sourcebook (“ICOBS”), issues arising from the sale of PPI, and challenges by FOS, the FCA and the Competition Commission.

We also represent banks and financial advisors in relation to the alleged mis-selling of investments and financial products, including alleged breaches of the COB rules, interest rate swap mis-selling, mortgage mis-selling, timeshare mis-selling and solar panel mis-selling.

We have experience in dealing with associated limitation issues, including by way of preliminary hearings. Many of Gough Square’s barristers have been seconded to the FCA, including to their ‘Investments, Insurance and Redress’ team.

Notable cases include:

  • Various v Diamond Resorts (Europe) Ltd [2020]: representing a timeshare supplier in bulk timeshare mis-selling litigation where allegations include misrepresentation, mistake, breach of timeshare legislation and unenforceability of contract terms. Members act variously for lenders and suppliers in similar claims.
  • R (on the application of Berkeley Burke SIPP Administration Limited) v the Financial Ombudsman Service Limited [2019]: representing the Association of Member-directed Pension Schemes in its proposed intervention before the Court of Appeal to protect the interests of the wider SIPP industry. Issues involved the breadth and proper application of FCA Principles 2 and 6 and the extent of due diligence required by pension administrators before accepting an investment into a SIPP.
  • Mohammed Arif and 175 others v BBSAL Ltd [2017] EWHC 3108 (Comm): defence of SIPP administrator in group litigation concerning allegedly mis-sold financial products.
  • Conlon v Black Horse Ltd UKSC 2014/0038: conjoined PPI mis-selling appeal with Plevin v Paragon Personal Finance Ltd [2014] 1 WLR 4222; settled three days before appeal in the Supreme Court following success in High Court and CA ([2013] EWCA Civ 1658).
  • Harrison v Black Horse Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 1128: successfully resisted the borrowers’ second appeal. The Court held that non-disclosure of 87% commission did not give rise to unfair relationship and that if there was no non-compliance with ICOB it was difficult to see how there could be an ‘unfair relationship’.
  • Barnes v Black Horse Ltd [2011] 2 All E.R. (Comm) 1130: unfair relationships and transitional provisions.
  • Black Horse Ltd v Speak [2010] EWHC 1866 (QB); [2010] C.T.L.C. 211: acting in a test case in the Manchester Mercantile Court concerning alleged mis-selling of PPI.

Advisory and Drafting

Gough Square barristers are experienced in:

  • Advising on whether arrangements constitute a collective investment scheme under FSMA s.235.
  • Advising on the FCA’s new rules for funeral plan providers and intermediaries, following the transfer of regulation from the FPA to the FCA.
  • Advising in relation to the creation of novel financial products.
  • Heading a pan-European regulatory review of insurance products for a multi-national corporation.
  • Publications

    ‘Encylopedia of Financial Services Law’, Sweet & Maxwell: essential & topical information on law and regulation of financial services. Members of chambers are the contributing editors.

    ‘Mis-selling Financial Services’, Edward Elgar Publishing: wide-ranging textbook analysing various forms of financial mis-selling.

    Modern Financial Regulation’, Jordan (2013): details the changes introduced by the Financial Services Act 2012, including content relating to the Financial Conduct Authority, consumer credit, payment services and electronic money.