Not upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Capital Com (UK) Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr S complained that Capital's platform malfunctioned on 22 January 2026, preventing him from closing his February Natural Gas Futures position. He claimed the position remained untradable, causing him to suffer losses when an automatic margin call closure was triggered approximately three hours later. Capital disputed the malfunction claim, stating the position was untradable for only milliseconds due to routine price feed updating and that Mr S made no further attempt to close it despite having the opportunity. The ombudsman found no platform malfunction, confirmed the untradable status lasted only milliseconds, and determined that under the execution-only service terms, Mr S bore sole responsibility for managing his position and should have made repeated closure attempts rather than relying on Capital's guidance. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Mr S bore responsibility for managing his position under the execution-only service terms, which meant Capital had no advisory obligation towards him. The off-market notice was temporary and clearly indicated the status was 'currently' untradable, implying it was temporary. The notice also directed Mr S to alternative options such as stop loss settings. Given that Mr S was actively monitoring the market on other platforms and needed to mitigate against price movement, he should have made repeated attempts to close the position rather than relying on Capital to advise him to do so. The technical evidence confirmed the position was untradable for only milliseconds and would have been successfully closed had Mr S re-attempted closure.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website