The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has welcomed the new Consumer Rights Act 2022, which came into force on November 28th 2022. The Consumer Rights Act will bring about a number of positive changes for consumers including:
- Stronger rights to redress for faulty goods, including the straightforward option of cancelling a faulty purchase within 30 days for a full refund
- Greater accountability for service providers, requiring tradespersons and vendors to provide tangible redress if services are not up to the agreed standard
- A ban on fake reviews with businesses prohibited from posting – or paying others to post – fake reviews for their products
- New rules for online marketplaces like eBay, Amazon and Etsy, which will have to meet transparency requirements on search rankings and seller details
- Protection for consumers of digital content and services, including the right to software updates
Price Indication Directive
The CCPC also welcomed the introduction at the same time of the Price Indication Directive, which aims to end the practice of raising product prices immediately prior to a sale in order to advertise misleadingly large discounts.
Since November 2022 any business advertising a discount is required by law to display the previous price which must be the lowest price applied in the previous 30 days. The CCPC has published guidelines to help businesses, www.ccpc.ie/business/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2014/04/CCPC-PID-GUIDELINES.pdf, to navigate the new rules and will be engaging with businesses over the coming weeks to explain their new responsibilities.
CCPC Consumer Contacts Report for Jan – Jun 2022
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has also released its Consumer Contacts Report for January – June 2022. The report details the number and nature of contacts to the CCPC’s consumer helpline. Key statistics include:
- 16,507 consumers contacted the CCPC helpline in the first half of this year, with faulty goods and services heading the list of reasons people got in touch
- Vehicles & transport and telecommunications topped the list of sectors the CCPC was contacted about within January 1st and June 30th of this year.
- The vast majority of contacts related to businesses based in Ireland, which now will be subject to the new Consumer Rights Act.
For further information visit www.ccpc.ie/business/ccpc-welcomes-new-rights-for-consumers/
