Wednesday 13 February 2013

UK: Supreme Court holds that extended warranty contracts were contracts of insurance

The Supreme Court gave judgment today in Digital Satellite Warranty Cover Limited v Financial Services Authority [2013] UKSC 7: see here or here (pdf). The court unanimously held that extended warranty contracts were contracts of insurance as defined in Article 3(1) and Schedule 1 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 (SI 2001/344). The court also held that the fact that the First Council Non-life Insurance Directive (73/239/EEC), as amended by Council Directive 84/641/EEC, specified certain categories of non-life insurance that required regulation did not mean that Member States were precluded from regulating further or wider categories under national law. As such, the court held that the FSA was entitled to seek the winding-up of the companies offering these contracts where they had failed to gain the FSA's authorisation in breach of the general prohibition under section 19 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

A summary of the court's decision is available here (pdf). A summary was also delivered by Lord Sumption (see below):

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