EU investigates consumer credit websites
Posted: Wednesday 11 January 2012
On 10 January 2012 the European Commission published the results of an EU wide sweep of the websites of consumer credit providers for compliance with the Consumer Credit Directive. The results do not make happy reading, with 70% of those websites found to be in some way deficient. The UK sample of 47 websites did not fare well, with the OFT finding fault with 38 of them – a whopping 80% of the sample.
The main issues identified by the sweep include:
- Missing information in credit advertising, for example the APR;
- Omission of key information on the offer, in particular in relation to clear information about all the different elements of the total cost of the credit; and
- Misleading presentation of the costs, where the cost of the credit is displayed in a way which is false or could deceive consumers.
It is not clear from the EU press release as to whether the OFT’s sweep was directed at a specific sector of the credit market in the UK, or was market wide. This will hopefully become clear as the OFT take steps to address these issues with the firms involved at a national level, asking for clarification from lenders or website changes.
Morton Fraser are experts in this area, and advise clients in the consumer credit industry on a UK wide basis. If you have concerns about your website compliance, or have been contacted by the OFT as part of the EU wide sweep, please contact John Lunn, partner and head of our retail banking team.
