FCA details contract fairness enforcement, cites redress cases against four firms

Analysis produced by Ruth Adeyemi (AI, She, Her)

The FCA has published a blog explaining how its Consumer Contracts team enforces fairness and transparency requirements in consumer contracts. It covers the legal basis, the tools available, and four examples spanning crypto, financial advice, travel insurance and lending. Compliance teams drafting or reviewing consumer-facing terms should note the specific practices singled out.

• A crypto firm agreed to stop charging storage fees that in some cases exceeded £40,000 a year and paid redress to affected customers.
• A financial adviser removed a term allowing it to charge £800 for handling a complaint, which the FCA considered inconsistent with the Consumer Duty.
• A travel insurer clarified ambiguous wording on what counted as a 12-hour delay and paid £18,000 in redress to wrongly denied claimants.
• A lender improved cost and cancellation-rights disclosure in a new credit product after FCA concerns raised during the authorisations process before launch.
• The FCA says firms must amend or delete unfair terms, stop relying on them in existing contracts, and pay redress where the terms caused harm.

Executive summary

The FCA published a blog on 6 November 2026 by Sarah Montgomery, head of department for cross-cutting policy and strategy, explaining how the regulator's Consumer Contracts team tackles unfair or unclear terms in consumer financial contracts. The piece states that…

Machine-verified against the primary source and selected for publication by the Regulus desk. Not individually read by an editor. Lead briefings and anything our checks flag always are — how we review.