Not upheld: refund claim handling; chargeback and Section 75 Consumer Credit Act claim assessment complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC trading as Tesco Bank

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs W purchased tickets from a third-party tour operator website in October 2025, believing it was the official website, and paid more than she would have at the official sites. She requested a refund of approximately £300 from Tesco Bank via a Section 75 claim and chargeback. Tesco declined both requests, citing that services were provided as agreed and that the supplier's website contained a disclaimer stating it was not affiliated with official entities. The ombudsman found that two transactions fell below the £100 Section 75 threshold, and for the third transaction, there was insufficient evidence of misrepresentation because the website's disclaimer clearly stated its non-official status. The ombudsman upheld Tesco's decision not to pursue chargebacks or Section 75 claims and found the £30 compensation for complaint handling issues to be appropriate.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the legal framework for chargebacks and Section 75 claims. For chargebacks, the ombudsman found Tesco reasonably concluded they would not succeed because Mrs W received the services as described. For Section 75 claims, two transactions failed the £100 financial threshold for individual items. For the third transaction meeting the threshold, the ombudsman found no false statement of fact had been made because the website's disclaimer clearly stated it was not the official website, and the word 'official' in the search engine description referred to the authenticity of the tickets themselves, not the website's official status. The ombudsman concluded Mrs W had not provided persuasive evidence of misrepresentation and that Tesco's consideration of the website information as a whole was reasonable.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website