The Dekagram 28th November 2022

Following the collapse of Thomas Cook we brought a number of claims under s.75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 against credit card suppliers in relation to the tour operator's alleged breach of contract. All very satisfactory, and a neat way of recovering damages where a potential Defendant does not have funds to satisfy any judgment or settlement. But what was the position, we often mused, where the Claimant was not the cardholder, but merely a member of the holiday party in respect of whom the booking had been made? Where (for example) a parent booked a holiday on behalf of his or her family, and one of the children was injured as a result of the negligence of a supplier, it seemed an odd result if the cardholder who made the booking could recover for his or her diminution in value, even a secondary victim claim for psychiatric damage, but the primary victim could not. And yet the wording of the Act is clear; in order to make a claim under s.75 the Claimant must be