Supreme Court judgment in Hopcraft appeals: defining the legal boundaries of broker/lender relationships in motor finance

by Matthew Gregory, Katie Stephen, Joe Bamford and Simon Lovegrove

On 1 August 2025, the UK Supreme Court handed down its judgment in three conjoined appeals ¹ concerning the payment of commission by finance lenders to motor dealers in connection with the provision of finance for the hire purchase of cars, where that commission is either not disclosed, or only partly disclosed, to buyers of cars. These conjoined appeals are commonly known as the "Hopcraft appeals" after the claimants in one of the cases (Amy and Carl Hopcraft), with the other two claimants being Marcus Johnson and Andrew Wrench.