FOI release: Office of Fair Trading's legal expenses during the 2009 bank charges cas

[Legal Beagles]

Response to a request for information about the Office of Fair Trading's test case into banks' unarranged overdraft charging terms

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[Amethyst]

Re: FOI release: Office of Fair Trading's legal expenses during the 2009 bank charges

didn't we ask this in 2009?

[Amethyst]

Re: FOI release: Office of Fair Trading's legal expenses during the 2009 bank charges

Yes we did

Response to my request for a copy of the FOI that gave up the 950k figure -
I can confirm that we hold information relevant to your request. If you follow the link below you should be able to see a copy of the request which led to the story, as this has recently been published on our website: http://www.oft.gov.uk/about/freedom/...tion/previous/ . You also asked if OFT intends to release any comment on the issue. In our earlier press release on this matter - see http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2009/137-09 - we said that a further announcement is likely to be made in December so I can only suggest you regularly check the OFT website for an update.

and here we are http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/fre...FOIA-74278.pdf

Reference Request Number: IAT/FOIA/74278 – 10 December 2009

Summary:
Request for information concerning the Bank Charges Test Case

Request:
The total costs of legal fees, incurred or expected, by The Office Of Fair Trading over the three court cases involving The Office Of Fair Trading v Abbey National PLC, Barclays Bank PLC, Clydesdale Bank PLC, HBOS PLC, HSBC PLC, Lloyds TSB Bank PLC, Nationwide Building Society, and The Royal Bank Of Scotland Group PLC.

These cases are dated:
24/04/2008 - Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London: The Office of Fair Trading – and – Abbey National PLC and 7 others (Neutral Citation Number: [2008] EWHC 875 (Comm)

24/04/2008 – High Court)

26/02/2009 – Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London: (1) Abbey National PLC, (2) Barclays Bank PLC, (3) Clydesdale Bank PLC, (4) HBOS PLC, (5) HSBC Bank PLC, (6) Lloyds TSB Bank PLC, (7) Nationwide Building Society (8) The Royal Bank Of Scotland Group PLC – and – The Office Of Fair Training (Neutral Citation Number: [2009] EWCA Civ 116 26/02/2009)

25/11/2009 – UK Supreme Court, London: Office of Fair Trading (Respondents) v Abbey National plc & others (Appellants) [2009] (UKSC 6 On appeal from the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) [2009] EWCA Civ 116)”

Response:
We understand from your request that you are seeking the total cost of OFT’s external legal fees relating to the above cases. Accordingly, I can confirm that the OFT holds
information falling within the scope of your request. We estimate that the OFT spent just over £950,000 on legal fees for the court cases the OFT has taken on this issue.

Duty to provide advice and assistance:
In July 2007, the OFT, seven banks and one building society, and the Financial Services Authority, signed a litigation agreement with a view to bringing a test case to resolve the
relevant legal issues concerning the fairness of unarranged overdraft charging terms under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. At section 5 of the litigation agreement, each party agreed to pay its own costs associated with the proceedings.

Copies of the litigation agreements1 can be found at
http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_res...marketstudies/completed/personal/personal-test-case/personal-documents
1 The Royal Bank of Scotland Group entered into the agreement on 26 July 2007, a day
after it was signed by the other signatories.

[Amethyst]

Re: FOI release: Office of Fair Trading's legal expenses during the 2009 bank charges

At least they are consistent, I'd have thought they could do better than an estimate now though after all they have had 5 years to work it out.

[righty]

Re: FOI release: Office of Fair Trading's legal expenses during the 2009 bank charges

Is anything known about the alledged stitch-up behind closed doors between the banks AND the OFT