The UK Supreme Court's First Major Case

Today the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom decided its first major case, Office of Fair Trading (Respondents) v Abbey National plc and others (Appellants).  In this case, the issue before the Supreme Court was "whether as a matter of law the fairness of bank charges levied on personal current account customers in respect of unauthorised overdrafts . . . can be challenged by the respondent the Office of Fair Trading . . . as excessive in relation to the services supplied to the customers."

In other words, can the OFT legally determine that penalty charges imposed by banks for unauthorised overdrafts are unfair and must be returned. The Supreme Court overruled the rulings of the lower appelate courts, holding that this was beyond the power of the OFT, a big blow for the people of Britain!

For further details, see the BBC News story.

It's also been interesting to see how the operation of the UK Supreme Court compares to that of the USA. In many ways the UK court seems less formal but there are certainly many similarities and I think it's a good thing for the UK with regard to clarifying the law and having a more visible court of final appeal.