Darlington woman welcomes court hearing about car financing
The Supreme Court is hearing about 'secret commissions' this week
Last updated 1st May 2025
A Darlington woman is welcoming a Supreme Court hearing about whether people were unfairly charged too much when buying cars on finance.
The case centres on the use of Discretionary Commission Arrangements (DCAs) which allowed car dealers to set interest rates on car loans, and therefore receive higher commissions. Critics say this incentivised them to inflate costs without proper disclosure, potentially costing buyers thousands.
It is thought the Supreme Court case could result in the largest consumer payout in UK history.
Experts say their decision could set a precedent for the wider financial services industry with as many as 10 million car finance agreements impacted. Some expect it to rival – or potentially even exceed – the payout from the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) scandal which totalled £38 billion.
32 year-old Steph Atkins from Darlington bought a second hand Audi A3 in 2017 on finance and she says she took her case to court when she found out she paid more than £1,000 in secret commissions.
Steph said: "It did take a while I will say. I was one of those people that ended up in Crown Court for a day. Obviously I'd had a preliminary call with a small claims court and that was when I first started hearing basically all of the legal jargon that you sort of think 'I have no idea.'
"I obviously got asked questions almost trying to trip me up as I clearly knew that if I was buying a car and buying a finance agreement, why didn't I know that there was going to be commission in that? Which it's not explained like that at all when you come to get your car on finance and I think it's generally how people get a car.
"The car itself was £18,000 and obviously I thought I knew enough about getting the car. I was paying around £290 a month for it on the finance. You don't get shown all of what the cheapest options are or they show you what the best option is for themselves, not for you. It's not fair.
"Obviously when I then found out that in amongst what I was paying was sort of a commission to give back to the dealer and who had sold me that car, I was just like 'hang on a minute.' They're meant to help you get a car, not help themselves before they help you get a car and that's basically what they're doing.
"If they're taking extra money to sort of fund themselves and to better the dealership and then what commission they receive, it's not fair that they're taking extra when people are quite simply just trying to go out and get a car. Everyone needs a car these days."