CAUSATION, REMOTENESS AND CALCULATION OF DAMAGES FOR FINANCIAL MIS-SELLING

Abstract

Financial mis-selling has been problematic in many jurisdictions. A customer who has been mis-sold financial products may pursue actions in contract, several torts (negligence, negligent misstatement, and deceit), statutory causes of action and breach of fiduciary duty. Each cause of action has different rules applying to causation, remoteness, and measurement of damages for financial losses. This chapter will explore the different causal formulations and rules which apply to ‘decision causation’, the remoteness rules regarding consequential losses (which may differ starkly from action to action) and the extent to which subsequent events are taken into account to establish the ‘true value’ of a product. The different rules regarding causation and remoteness will be particularly salient following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the global economic downturn which has followed. This may or may not constitute a ʼnew intervening’ act depending upon the rules which apply in a given cause of action. © The Editors and Contributors Severally 2021.