Banks won a two-year court battle over overdraft charges on Wednesday, dealing a blow to hundreds of thousands of customers seeking to claim back billions of pounds which they say were levied unfairly.
The landmark ruling, handed down by the Supreme Court, found the country's consumer watchdog the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) cannot use customer protection rules to investigate whether the fees were unfair.
"Today's decision is a hammer blow to the OFT and signals the end of the road when it comes to investigating bank charges on behalf of the public," Mathew Rea, head of litigation at law firm Dawsons said.
"Consumers now have the option to pursue individual claims against the bank but this would be extremely costly and time consuming." .
Do you agree with the decision of the Supreme Court? Are overdraft charges fair? Do you think a ban on overdraft charges would only lead to further charges being levied on your bank account elsewhere?
