Legal Advice - UK Consumer Credit Licence ?

Hi Everyone,

Sorry if I've the wrong section - this is UK specific regarding a Consumer Credit Licence or CCL for short.

I've been in talks with a merchant in the financial services sector - I've promoted them for ages on an affiliate basis but they NOW require me to have a CCL ... as I will be "providing a click through referral service and receiving a commission" - they say a CCL is required for this purpose.

Now this is where things get complicated, the OFT won't give any advice and Trading Standards who they've referred me to say I don't need one.

Either way, to carry on marketing this specific merchant, I'm going to need my own CCL anyway.

With regards to the business type, I'm in Internet Marketing, I build sites and blogs on a whole host of topics including financial services but there is no field on the CCL application for IM.

I have and still run a couple of static sites and I have financial products and services listed accordingly - at the time of adding the affiliate text links and banners etc ... I was told by the merchants or the networks I was operating through that I didn't need a CCL or that I was covered by their own CCL.

Now this is where I hit a sticky point - to add my list of domains to the CCL application, including my old domains which have a variety of financial services listed, the form says you cannot have content listed on a domain already so I'm in a bit of a catch 22 situation.

I need a CCL to comply with this specific merchant which has always been a good service for me to promote but I can't have domains showing content from them and others already in existance ...

I've also purchased NEW domains for my blogs which are okay as there is nothing on those but by applying and adding my old domains later will cost me quite a lot of money - moving forward, I seem to be lost as to what I should do for CCL application purposes - does anyone with CCL knowledge have any ideas ?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or help ...