First, Bright J unequivocally held that Mr. Chechetkin qualified
as a consumer under the CRA 2015 due to the fact that, at the date
of submission of the application to open the account at Payward,
Mr. Chechetkin was a lawyer and clearly stated that he had no
relevant experience of cryptocurrency trading. As such, Bright J
disregarded Payward's argument whereby Mr. Chechetkin had
conducted his trading activities in a knowledgeable, experienced
and sophisticated manner, while accessing his account regularly and
investing substantial sums of money.
Second, Bright J rejected the argument whereby Mr. Chechetkin
should be deprived of his right to pursue claims under the FSMA
before English courts, merely because he had failed to bring them
during the arbitration proceedings. The court held that since
California law was the governing law on the merits in the
arbitration, it would have been unreasonable to estop Mr.
Chechetkin from raising claims under the FSMA before
