Consumer Legislation

When a share in a syndicated horse is offered for sale by a syndicator, the offer, (particularly the terms and conditions) are bound by law, to comply with consumer legislation.

Best practice dictates that the full terms and conditions should be displayed on the syndicator's website.

It follows that if you are unable to establish the terms and conditions without having to do some digging, you may think twice before proceeding.

Copyright law specifies that syndicators should not be copying the wording of competitors terms and conditions.

Consumer legislation specifies that an offence may be committed when pertinent facts are omitted.

Essential information to enable a consumer to make an informed buying decision, could include:-

• End date of the syndicate period.
• Full breakdown of the costs involved, such as horse value, management fees, insurance (if applicable), racing and training fees.
• What percentage of the whole horse does each share represent? This is even more important when the horse is jointly owned by another entity. For example XYZ Bloodstock may own 50% of the horse and the Syndicator owns 50%. The syndicate should include all ownership entities, thereby ensuring that syndicatees are not paying an unequal sum, or receiving an unequal share of prize money and sale value.