As a company every so often you must be prepared that someone will come along and try suing your ass off. It happens to the best of us – if it’s from the local village idiot claiming image rights, to someone claiming he were the mastermind behind Facebook it happens. It doesn’t even matter if you’ve done nothing wrong – you can still be a target.
This appears to be what has happened to the spread-betting firm IG Markets, a subsidiary of the IG Group. Three former clients of the defunct Echelon Wealth Management group have hit IG with a claim for £21.4m.
IG Group released a statement to the market regarding the claim, which said the lawsuit was “without foundation” and that it would have no material impact on the business’s performance.
“IG, having sought the opinion of leading Counsel, considers the claim to be speculative and without foundation and will defend itself vigorously,” said the company in its statement.
Echelon, based in Glasgow, was trading in the contract for difference (CFDs) product before they went into liquidation in early 2008. IG Group denies that they ever did any business with the company.
If they’re really worried about this claim they can always get Team Sky to come down and help them to speed off – such is the terms of the sponsorship agreement between the two. The image in my mind is alarmingly reminiscent of those cringing ads involving Chris Hoy, some Shredded Wheat, and a cyclist.
