Car Finance Agreements: Update on Supreme Court Intervention

Car finance lenders have appealed to the Supreme Court following the Court of Appeal’s judgment in Marcus Gervase Johnson v Firstrand Bank Limited (London Branch) t/a Motonovo Finance [2024] EWCA Civ 1282  (see our previous article covering this for further details).

The Supreme Court will hear the appeal in April 2025. If the Supreme Court agrees with the Court of Appeal’s decision, Moody’s current estimated impact to the motor finance sector is £30bn – mirroring the PPI crisis.

The Supreme Court: Intervention – Government cannot have a say - but who else is intervening and who is out?

The Government applied to intervene in the Supreme Court hearing because of economic concerns to the motor finance market. In seeking to intervene, the Government’s position was that it wanted to protect consumers, the motor finance sector and protect the competitiveness of UK banks – admirable, but the Supreme Court has rejected its request to intervene. 

Also out are Consumer Voice, a customer campaign group and the Financing and Leasing Association which acts for companies involved in leasing and financing cars including banks, the finance arms of retailers and independent lenders. 

However, the Supreme Court has allowed intervention from the FCA and the National Franchised Dealers Association. The interests of consumers and dealerships (as advocated for by these organisations) will now be considered by the Supreme Court.

The waiting game...

We await the Supreme Court’s Judgment and we will provide a further update once the decision is announced. In the meantime, the Court of Appeal Judgment remains binding.