Holy crap, how is this legal?!

[innocent_lex]

Just saw an advert for a loanshark. An actual advert on the telly. Wasn't taking much notice, other than wondering where I put the remote so I could fast forward, and I happened to glance up to see... "APR 1737% representative". Yes, you read that right, almost two thousand percent interest. They talk about an emergency loan of £100 to get a washing machine fixed. So the person would have to pay the loan back within about 3 weeks if they only wanted to pay double what they'd borrowed.

I cannot believe that's legal. Seriously, is it? Is that what we've come to, what the shitty economy has brought us to? Seriously? Bugger me.