knowledge 3 November 2025 |

Increasing Enforcement in the Consumer Protection Sphere: What Consumer-Facing Businesses should know

Following the publication of the 2024 Annual Report of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (the “CCPC”), we consider the rise in enforcement actions taken by the CCPC and other regulatory authorities in the consumer protection sphere over the last 18 months. Key areas of regulatory focus are pricing transparency and misleading commercial practices. We also look ahead at upcoming consumer protection laws.  

The CCPC has long been calling for the power to impose significant fines on companies directly (rather than having to go to Court) and will welcome the recent Government Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity which sets a timeline of Q4 2026 for the provision of new powers to the CCPC to impose administrative financial sanctions in respect of breaches of consumer protection legislation. In addition, the Programme for Government commits to examining the creation of a dedicated consumer enforcement agency.

Taking account of this, and the further consumer-focused legislation coming down the tracks, it is certainly timely for consumer facing businesses to take steps to ensure compliance with consumer protection laws.

Increasing CCPC Enforcement 

2024

The CCPC took 75 enforcement actions against 37% of traders inspected.  These included five successful prosecutions for breaches of the:

• Price Indication Regulations¹ against:
  • Tesco Ireland Limited for failing to include unit pricing on Tesco Clubcard promotional labels; and
  • Centz Stores 5 Limited (trading as Homesavers) for failing to display the price in euro of a product;
• Consumer Protection Act 2007 (the “Act”) for providing false/misleading information to a consumer in relation to the crash history of a car and misleading/deceiving the consumer in relation to the risks presented by mechanical deficiencies of the car against three car dealers.

The CCPC also issued 47 Fixed Payment Notices for failures to indicate the selling and unit price of products in breach of the Price Indication Regulations (including to Aldi, Brown Thomas, Currys, Dunnes Stores, Londis, Spar) and failures to display a notice specifying the price of beverages in licenced premises in breach of the Retail Price (Beverages in Licensed Premises) Display Order, 1999 (the “Display Order”).

The CCPC also served 23 Compliance Notices for:

• Misleading commercial practices in breach of the Act for providing false information in relation to:
  • the price of a product where the displayed price differed from the price at the till (issued to Dunnes Stores, Harvey Normans, Holland & Barrett, Zara and various pubs)
  • the method or date of a product’s delivery (issued to an online jeweller)
  • a motor vehicle’s usage or prior history (issued to various car dealers)
• Misleading commercial practices in breach of the Act for omitting or concealing the main characteristics of the product, being that the vehicle had been previously damaged (issued to a car dealer)
• Prohibited commercial practices in breach of the Act by:
  • making a representation or creating an impression that the trader was not acting for the purposes related to his trade, business or profession (issued to various car dealers)
  • using editorial content in the media to promote a product (where a trader has paid for that promotion) and it is not made clear that the promotion is a paid promotion (issued to various influencers such as Brian O’Driscoll)
• A prohibited act or practice within the meaning of the Act for a contravention of the Charges (Hairdressing) Display Order 1976 (issued to a hairdresser)
• Breaches of the Consumer Rights Act 2022 for failure to reimburse consumers without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days after the day on which the trader is informed of the relevant consumer’s decision to cancel their contract (issued to a jeweller and festival organiser)
• Breaches of the Display Order for failure to display a notice as required.

2025

The CCPC successfully prosecuted DID Electrical Appliances, Lifestyle Sports (Ireland), Rath-wood Home and Garden World and Boots Retail (Ireland) Limited for breaches of Section 5A of the Price Indication Regulations, which requires traders announcing a reduction in selling price to indicate the prior price, which must have been applied during a period of not less than 30 days before the application of the reduction of the selling price. The prosecutions were launched by the CCPC in November 2024 following online sweeps conducted over the 2023-2024 winter sales season, including Black Friday. Each retailer was fined €1,000 and ordered to pay the CCPC’s costs.  The maximum fine that can be imposed under the Price Indication Regulations is €5,000.  

The CCPC also successfully prosecuted a car dealer on a summary basis for engaging in misleading commercial practices in breach of the Act by providing false information in relation to the mileage history of second-hand cars sold by him. The dealer was sentenced to 80 hours of community service in lieu of three months’ imprisonment.

A person guilty of an offence under the Act is liable on summary conviction to a fine of up to €4000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or both and on indictment to a fine not exceeding €60,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 18 months or both.

The compliance notices and fixed payment notices issued by the CCPC so far this year are for breaches similar to 2024.

The importance of monitoring customer complaints

The CCPC has reiterated that all calls to the CCPC helpline are screened for potential breaches of consumer protection law and drive its enforcement and compliance activities. In 2024, 73 helpline contacts were referred for investigation. Notably, over 100 complaints triggered the ongoing probe into Ticketmaster’s handling of Oasis tickets, examining whether pricing was clearly and timely explained.

CCPC activity at EU level

The CCPC has recently co-led coordinated actions by the EU Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (“CPCN”)² against multinational online retailers for suspected breaches of consumer law as set out below. 

On 26 May 2025, the CPCN notified the online marketplace and e-retailer SHEIN of a number of practices on its platform that potentially infringe EU consumer law.³  These include:

• fake discounts - pretending to offer better deals by showing price reductions that are not based on the actual prior prices;
• pressure tactics - using false deadlines to put pressure on consumers to purchase;
• missing information - displaying incomplete and incorrect information about a consumer’s rights to return goods and receive refunds;
• deceptive product labels - using product labels that suggest the product offers something special when in fact the relevant feature is required by law;
• misleading claims - giving false or deceptive information about the sustainability benefits of certain products; and
• hidden contact details - making it difficult for consumers to contact SHEIN with questions or complaints. 

The CPCN also requested further information to assess SHEIN’s compliance with further obligations under EU consumer law in respect of product rankings, ratings and reviews, and third-party sellers.

SHEIN was given one month to propose commitments addressing the identified consumer law issues.  Where SHEIN fails to address the concerns identified, national authorities can investigate further and may take enforcement measures to ensure compliance. 

This follows the CPCN’s announcement in November 2024 that it had sought commitments from:

• Temu in respect of practices which may mislead consumers or unduly influence their purchasing decisions including fake discounts, fake pressure, missing and misleading information, fake reviews and hidden information.   Information has also been requested from Temu to assess if it is complying with EU consumer laws on discount calculation, product ranking, review and rating authenticity, trader identification, and environmental claims; and
• Apple in respect of potential breaches of geo-blocking regulations.⁴ 

The CCPC also participated in an EU wide compliance sweep of 356 online traders, selling second-hand goods such as clothes, accessories and electronic equipment, which found that more than half of traders were potentially breaking consumer law, for example by not correctly informing consumers about their right to return faulty goods or goods that did not look or work as advertised or not clearly informing customers of their right of withdrawal within 14 days without justification or cost, and for insufficiently substantiated or false environmental claims. Consumer authorities will now decide whether to take action against the 185 traders that were earmarked for further investigation and request compliance according to their national procedures.

Following an earlier ‘sweep’ of third-party car rental websites, conducted by the CCPC and competent authorities in 10 Member States co-ordinated by the EC, Rentalcars.com was found to be providing consumers with unclear and misleading information, which it removed following engagement with the CPCN. The CCPC has also engaged with other entities to clarify consumer information on car rental websites.

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2022, Irish Courts can impose fines of up to 4% of annual turnover in Ireland (or where that information is not available, up to €2 million) on traders successfully prosecuted for breaches of certain “national measures”, including in relation to unfair, misleading and aggressive commercial practices and unfair consumer contracts, where such breaches are widespread or cross-border.

Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”)

The CCPC is not acting alone in this space.  The ASA is an independent self-regulatory body which promotes, regulates and enforces advertising standards.  Its Code of Standards for Advertising and Marketing Communications in Ireland (the “Code”) applies to all commercial marketing communications and sales promotions in Ireland.  So far in 2025 the ASA has upheld 44 of 50 complaints reported to it, primarily in relation to misleading advertisements.

On 25 August 2025 the ASA and CCPC announced a new data-sharing agreement aimed at enhancing regulatory oversight of social media platforms.  It will allow the ASA to share with the CCPC information related to suspected breaches of consumer law which it receives through its online reporting portal without breaching data protection laws, which the CCPC says will strengthen social media influencer regulation.

Commission for Communications Regulation (“ComReg”)

The Commercial Court in enforcement proceedings issued by ComReg recently found that Virgin Media had not complied with its obligations under Regulations 25(6)(b) of the Universal Service Regulations⁵ , being that “…the undertaking shall ensure that conditions and procedures for contract termination do not act as a disincentive to a consumer to changing service provider” due to the unwelcome “save activity” engaged in by Virgin Media agents when customers called to cancel.

Commission for Regulation of Utilities (“CRU”)

It has been recently reported that the CRU has indicated that it would investigate claims made by Energia that its price rises were “regulatory-approved” to see if they are misleading or breached the customer code of conduct⁶.

Recent legislative developments

The European Accessibility Act (“EEA”), which came into force on 28 June 2025, requires specific categories of consumer products (e.g. atms, payment terminals, computer hardware and operating systems, smartphones) and services (e.g. electronic communication services, consumer banking, e-commerce services) to be accessible for persons with disabilities.⁷  Please see our briefing here for further details.

Further Consumer Protection laws on the horizon  

While misleading environmental claims are already prohibited under the general Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (“UPCD”) framework (implemented in Ireland by the Act), the Green Transition Directive (“GTD”)⁸ amends the UPCD to add provisions relating specifically to environment claims.

For example, false or deceptive information in relation to the “environmental or social characteristics, circularity aspects such as durability, reparability or recyclability” of a product and which causes or is likely to cause an average consumer to take a transactional decision that he would not have taken otherwise will now explicitly constitute misleading commercial practices.

A commercial practice will also be regarded as misleading if it causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision that he would not have taken otherwise and it involves:

• “making an environmental claim related to future environmental performance without clear, objective, publicly available and verifiable commitments set out in a detailed and realistic implementation plan that includes measurable and time-bound targets and other relevant elements necessary to support its implementation, such as allocation of resources, and that is regularly verified by an independent third party expert, whose findings are made available to consumers”; and
• “advertising benefits to consumers that are irrelevant and do not result from any feature of the product or business”

In addition, the list of commercial practices regarded as unfair in all circumstances and therefore prohibited will also include greenwashing practices such as:

• displaying a sustainability label that is not based on a certification scheme or established by public authorities;
• making a generic environmental claim without being able to demonstrate recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the claim;
• making an environmental claim about an entire product or the trader’s entire business when it applies to just one aspect;
• claiming, based on offsetting of greenhouse gas emissions, that a product has a reduced, neutral or positive impact on the environment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions; and
• presenting legal requirements as a distinctive feature of the trader’s offer.

The measures are required to apply from 27 September 2026.

The Right to Repair Directive (“RRD”)⁹ aims to reduce waste and contribute to the circular economy by extending the lifespan of consumer products by means of repair and introduces certain obligations in relation to the repair of goods. The transposition and application deadline is 31 July 2026. 

Both RRD and the UCPD (as amended by GTD) are in scope for collective redress under the Representative Actions Directive.