PA(GI) LTD V GICL 2013 LTD AND ANOTHER

[2015] EWHC 1556 (Ch), Chancery Division, Mrs Justice Andrews, 5 June 2015

Insurance (payment protection) - Transfer of business - Whether statutory transfer carried liabilities for mis-selling claims - Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, Part VII

From 1990 to 2004 PAGI, a wholly owned subsidiary of RSA, sold PPI policies. One group of such policies was sold to account-holders at the retailer Next plc. Next entered into a Master Policy with PAGI under which Next allocated customers to the Master Policy when they took out a Next credit agreement. In 2006 the PPI business was transferred to Groupama under a scheme approved by Mann J in accordance with Part VII of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Mann J's order stated that "transferred liabilities" consisted of "all liabilities of the Transferor ... attaching to the Transferred Policies". From 2012 onwards Next customers made complaints as to mis-selling PPI policies, creating potential liability for repayment of premiums with interest at 8 per cent under the compensation scheme administered by the Financial Ombudsman Service. The question was whether the 2006 Order transferred mis-selling liabilities to Groupama.