Festival refunds are not guaranteed so know your rights, warns the Financial Ombudsman Service
4 June 2026
As festival season gets going, many consumers may not understand their rights to getting their money back if things go wrong.
Financial Ombudsman talks about new Consumer Duty at ABI’s event
Ombudsman Leader, Constance Chinhengo, attended the ABI’s Webinar on 8 November on the Consumer Duty – From principle to practice: product value and customer communications.
Constance spoke alongside Matt Brewis, Director of Insurance from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) about what the new Duty means for the Financial Ombudsman Service and shared some of the ways we’re working with the regulator and stakeholders during the implementation period.
Constance outlined three main points to attendees:
- Our preparation, including that we’re working very closely with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) so that we have a consistent and complementary approach to the new Consumer Duty.
- That we won’t apply the duty retrospectively – only applying it to complaints about acts or omissions occurring after the implementation period.
- That we welcome continued engagement with stakeholders, trade bodies and businesses, and hope the new Consumer Duty will help to prevent unnecessary complaints by tackling unfairness at the source.
You can find out more about the new Consumer Duty and how we’re preparing for it in our blog.
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