💥 Supreme Court: Lenders Admit They Never Acted in Customer Interests

The dust is settling following the long-awaited Supreme Court judgment on motor finance commission, and while some media outlets spun it as a victory for lenders, the deeper reality paints a very different picture — and one that could prove devastating for the finance industry.

Because in defending themselves, dealerships and lenders have openly admitted that they were never acting in the interests of the consumer.

They were acting solely in their own commercial interests — maximising profit, manipulating interest rates, and disguising hefty commissions — and, crucially, failing to disclose the amount of commission to the very people funding those profits: you, the customer.

🤝 Dealers Weren’t Advisers — Just Salespeople?

Throughout the case, lenders and dealers repeatedly argued that they didn’t owe a duty of care to customers.

They weren’t providing advice, they claimed. They weren’t acting for the benefit of the customer. Their role, they insisted, was purely to sell.

But this defence is a double-edged sword.

If dealerships were acting in their own interests, and not as impartial brokers, then FCA rules (ICOBS 4.4.1R) required them to disclose the commission arrangements, including the amount, whenever that commission could influence the outcome of the sale.

🔍 FCA ICOBS 4.4.1R (as in force in May 2018):
“A firm must disclose the existence and nature of any commission or other remuneration… where that commission could affect the firm’s impartiality.”

So, the lenders’ own argument confirms that disclosure was required.

They’ve essentially admitted that they’ve breached the regulator’s rules.

🧾 So… Why Wasn’t the Commission Disclosed?

Because disclosing it would receive a commission to enable to it sell the vehicle it wanted to sell would have raised too many questions.

It would have revealed the true cost of the deal.

It would have exposed that customers were being charged inflated interest rates to fund commission — and that they may not have received the best deal they qualified for.

💬 Let’s be honest: the commission model existed solely to reward dealerships for selling more expensive finance products.

That is the heart of the issue, and it’s why millions of motor finance agreements have been mis-sold.

❓ Will the Industry Now Accept the Consequences?

With the Supreme Court judgment now in place and lenders having admitted that impartiality was never part of the transaction, serious questions must now be asked:

• Will lenders now accept that disclosure was legally required?
  Or will they continue to reject complaints using twisted logic and half-truths?
• Will the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) uphold complaints in line with this reality?
  Or will it continue its worrying trend of siding with lenders in clear breach of FCA rules?
• Will the FCA finally admit that its own rules were systemically broken for more than a decade?
  Or will it seek to rewrite history and shield the finance industry from consequences — again?

⚠️ The Truth Can No Longer Be Denied

This isn’t a technical argument anymore.

This is about fairness.

This is about tens of millions of consumers who may have paid more than they should have.

This is about systemic, profit-driven misconduct disguised as routine practice.

And it’s about whether the UK’s regulatory bodies have the courage to stand up for consumers — or whether they’ll fold again under the weight of financial lobbying.

The Supreme Court has spoken.

Now we wait to see whether the industry and its regulators will listen — or continue the cover-up.