COB 1.10 1Application of the Distance Marketing Directive and the Distance Marketing Regulations

This section provides guidance on certain expressions used in COB that are derived from the Distance Marketing Directive and on the application of the Distance Marketing Regulations.

1This sourcebook adopts the concepts of "initial service agreement" and "successive operations" from the DMD.

1. (1)

   A firm's contract with a customer may take the form of an initial service agreement under which successive operations or a series of separate operations of the same nature are performed over time. Where this is the case, the DMD disclosure and cancellation requirements apply in relation to the initial service agreement only and not to the successive or separate operations. However, if new elements are added to the initial service agreement, the addition of those new elements is treated as a new contract to which the DMD disclosure and cancellation requirements apply. In accordance with recital 17 of the Distance Marketing Directive, examples are:

   1. (a)

      the opening of a bank account, which would be an initial service agreement, and the deposit or withdrawal of funds from that account which would be a successive or series of separate operations under that initial agreement; however, adding a debit card to the account would be the addition of a new element involving a separate contract; and

   2. (b)

      concluding an investment management agreement would be an initial service agreement, and carrying on discretionary or advisory transactions under that agreement would be a successive or a series of separate operations under it.

   Other examples are, in the FSA's view:

   1. (c)

      opening a brokerage account for the purposes of trading securities, and transactions under that account;

   2. (d)

      establishing a facility to enable a customer to subscribe to an ISA for the present and future tax years, and successive subscriptions under that agreement;

   3. (e)

      subscribing to an investment trust savings scheme, and successive purchases or sales of shares under that scheme; and

   4. (f)

      concluding a life policy, pension contract or stakeholder pension scheme that includes a pre-selected option providing for future increases or decreases in regular premiums or payments, and subsequent index-linked changes to those premiums or increases or decreases to pension contributions following fluctuations in salary.

2. (2)

   Even if a firm has not entered into an initial service agreement with a retail customer, but simply performs successive operations or a series of separate operations of the same nature for a retail customer over time, the DMD disclosure requirements will not apply to the successive or separate operations, provided there has been an operation of the same nature within the past year. But if it has been longer than a year, the next operation will be treated as the first in a new series of operations and the DMD disclosure requirements will apply. In accordance with recital 17 of the Distance Marketing Directive, an example of "successive operations" is the subscription to units of the same collective investment scheme.

1. (1)

   1The Distance Marketing Directive provides protections for 'any natural person who, in distance contracts... is acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business or profession', for which the FSA uses the term 'retail customer'. In practice, private individuals may act in a number of capacities. In the FSA's view retail customer does not include an individual acting, for example:

   1. (a)

      as trustee of a trust such as a housing or NHS trust; or

   2. (b)

      as member of the governing body of a club or other unincorporated association such as a trade body or a student union; or

   3. (c)

      as a pension trustee (but see COB 6.4.19 and COB 6.7.8 regarding the information and cancellation rights of such trustees).

2. (2)

   Examples of retail customers are:

   1. (a)

      personal representatives, including executors, unless they are acting in a professional capacity, for example, a solicitor acting as executor; or

   2. (b)

      private individuals acting in personal or other family circumstances for example, as trustee of a family trust.

1. (1)

   2To be a distance contract, a contract must be concluded under an 'organised distance sales or service-provision scheme' run by the contractual provider of the service who, for the purpose of the contract, makes exclusive use (directly or through an intermediary) of one or more means of distance communication up to and including the time at which the contract is concluded. The expression 'organised distance sales or service-provision scheme' is not defined in the DMD, but:

   1. (a)

      recital 15 of the DMD states that contracts negotiated at a distance involve the use of means of distance communication which are used as part of such a scheme not involving the simultaneous physical presence of the supplier and the consumer; and

   2. (b)

      recital 18 of the DMD states that the expression is intended to exclude services provided on a strictly occasional basis and outside a commercial structure dedicated to the conclusion of distance contracts.

2. (2)

   So, in the FSA's view, this means that:

   1. (a)

      the firm must have put in place facilities designed to enable a retail customer to deal with it exclusively at a distance, such as facilities for a retail customer to deal with it purely by post, telephone, fax or the Internet. If a firm normally operates face-to-face and has no facilities in place enabling a retail customer to deal with it customarily by distance means, the DMD will not apply. A one-off transaction effected exclusively by distance means to meet a particular contingency or emergency will not be a distance contract; and

   2. (b)

      there must have been no simultaneous physical presence of the firm and the other party to the contract throughout the offer, negotiation and conclusion of the contract. So, for example, contracts offered, negotiated and concluded over the Internet, through a telemarketing operation or by post will normally be distance contracts. A retail customer may visit the local office of the firm in the course of the offer, negotiation or conclusion of the contract with that firm. Wherever, in the literal sense, there has been "simultaneous physical presence" of the firm and the retail customer at the time of such a visit, any ensuing contract will not be a distance contract.

1The mere fact that an intermediary (acting for the supplier or for the retail customer) is involved, does not make the sale of a financial product or service a distance contract. The same principles apply as in the case of contact between the supplier and a retail customer. For example, if the intermediary and retail customer are simultaneously physically present at some stage in the course of the offer, negotiation and conclusion of a contract, the contract will not be a distance contract.3

1Some of the services which some intermediaries provide will themselves fall within the scope of the DMD. The FSA expects this to apply in only a small minority of cases, for example where the intermediary agrees to provide continuing advisory, broking or portfolio management services for a retail customer. The DMD is only relevant if:

1. (1)

   there is a contract between the intermediary and the retail customer in respect of the intermediary's mediation services; an intermediary may in its terms of business make clear that it does not, in providing its mediation services, act contractually on behalf of, or for, its retail customer and then proceed on the basis that no contract for its mediation services will arise;

2. (2)

   the contract is a distance contract; and

3. (3)

   the contract is concluded other than merely as a stage in the provision of another service by the intermediary or another person (see COB 4 Annex 1.1 R(13) and COB 6.7.17, Row 1, case D(a)).

COB implements most of the Distance Marketing Directive for distance contracts concluded by firms, the making or performance of which constitutes, or is part of, designated investment business or accepting deposits. However, certain aspects of the Distance Marketing Directive are implemented by provisions of the Distance Marketing Regulations, which apply in addition to COB, in particular:

1. (1)

   regulation 12 (Automatic cancellation of an attached distance contract) on which there is guidance in COB 6.7.51A G; and2

2. (2)

   regulation 14 (Payment by card). 21