On 6 September 2019, the High Court handed judgment in Milne v Open Access Finance Limited [2019] EWHC 2517 (Ch) following the customer’s application for disclosure of the names of each of the 612 individual lenders who had (at various stages) entered into credit agreements with him using the peer2peer lending platform provided by Open Access Finance Limited (the Platform Provider).
Mr Milne sought disclosure of the lenders’ names so he could bring a claim against them alleging (a) breaches of statutory duty under Section 138D of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and (b) an unfair relationship within the meaning of Section 140A to 140C of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
The Court refused to order the Platform Provider disclose the individual lenders‘ names. Instead, it made a representative order under Rule 19.6 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 appointing the the Platform Provider as the representative defendant.