City watchdogs given teeth to bite BNPL firms

CHARLIE CONCHIE

CITY watchdogs will have the power to “clamp down” on buy-now pay-later firms later this year, the government has said as it prepares to publish a much-delayed update on the regulation governing the sector.

SHARE prices in courier firm DX Group plunged yesterday after it confirmed a legal claim was lodged against it by a rival logistics company, accusing it of alleged corporate espionage.

Shares in DX tumbled as much as 11 per cent on Monday morning after it said that Tuffnells Parcels Express submitted the claim in the High Court on Friday “in relation to confidential competitor information being obtained by DX in the past”.

It follows a report in the Sunday Times detailing allegations by Sheffield-based logistics firm Tuffnells that some DX Group staff, who were former employees of Tuffnells, had conspired to obtain daily customer service reports.

DX Group said: “Matters referred to in the claim were subject to a corporate governance inquiry and investigation by DX, the conclusions of

“The group intends to defend its position robustly and will respond to the claim in due course.”

DX said last September that the internal investigation found that confidential competitor information was obtained and “an isolated offer of payment… for such information had been made by employees”.

It concluded at the time that there may have been a breach of the Bribery Act 2012 by the employees concerned and that it had taken further disciplinary action with staff involved in the case as well as improved management training and protocols.

DX’s former auditor, Grant Thornton, resigned in February last year because of what it claimed were “actual or potential breaches of law and/or regulations by the company” as well as “the performance of the investigation and subsequent corporate governance inquiry”.