Act bolsters Irish consumers, says lawyer

Irish consumers are better protected than consumers in any other common law country since new legislation came into force earlier this year, a law conference has been told.

Ireland has gone from having one of the weakest regimes of consumer protection in the common law world to having the strongest, lawyer Nathan Reilly told the conference.

The Consumer Protection Act contained many novel features, and its enactment last May meant that Irish consumer protection law had gone full circle, he said.

Mr Reilly, who was speaking yesterday at a conference in TCD on the implications of the new legislation, said the presence of dishonest traders in the market drove both honest traders and the market out of existence.

If consumers could not tell the difference between high-quality products and low-quality goods, there was no commercial incentive for traders to provide better quality.

The new legislation gave the National Consumer Agency (NCA) a "toolbox" of options to deal with disputes outside the courts, through the use of self regulation, persuasion, on-the-spot fines, undertakings and compliance notices, he said.

However, while the protection the Act gave to vulnerable consumers was weak and convoluted, it represented a marked improvement on previous law.

Barrister Ailbhe O'Neill said the Act provided for the granting of prohibition orders by the courts to stop traders engaging in prohibited practices.

However, it wasn't only the NCA or public bodies that could apply for these orders. By envisaging private actions being taken, the Act raised the possibility of, for example, competitors of the trader seeking a prohibition order.

Ms O'Neill said it was too early to assess the effectiveness of the Act or the NCA. The impact of the NCA on consumer affairs would depend on the zeal with which the agency used its powers.

Deirdre Ahern, a law lecturer in TCD, said there was little cause for concern among reputable traders about the additional burden of compliance created by the Act.