The WLR Daily case summaries
[2020] WLR(D) 398
Chancery Division
Financial Conduct Authority v Avacade Ltd (in liquidation) (trading as Avacade Investment Options) and others
[2020] EWHC 1673 (Ch)
2020 Jan 21, 22, 23, 27–31, Feb 4, 13; June 30
Adam Johnson QC sitting as a deputy High Court judge
Financial services— Regulated and prohibited activities— General prohibition— Defendant financial intermediaries contacting consumers first offer them free pension report and then to discuss transferring pension funds into self-invested personal pensions— Defendants receiving substantial commissions from purchase by consumers within SIPPs of direct interest in assets— Financial Conduct Authority contending defendants in breach of general prohibition against carrying on regulated activities by “making arrangements” “with a view to” person participating in them buying or selling securities— Whether defendants “making arrangements”— Whether made in relation to buying or selling of securities even if consumers having direct ownership of assets— Whether within exclusions and therefore not regulated— Whether defendants’ directors knowingly concerned in defendants’ infringements of general prohibition—
Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (c 8), ss 19, 382
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Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 (SI 2001/544), art 25, 29, 33