Director of Consumer Affairs Carmel Foley welcomed the successful prosecution in the District Court yesterday of three businesses which failed to comply with price legislation.
The court's decision coincided with the publication of the Director of Consumer Affairs' annual report indicating that her office received more than 30,000 queries from consumers last year.
In 2004, the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs (ODCA) conducted 1,500 investigations arising from consumer complaints as well as starting over 3,000 investigations of its own.
Yesterday, two shops and a pub were convicted and fined for failing to display prices of certain products as required under the terms of the Product Prices Regulations 2002.
The Mercantile Bar on Dublin's Dame Street was found not to have displayed a 16-item drinks list. The Spar-Texaco service station, Naas Road, Clondalkin, was fined €750 for breaching the regulations and the Londis shop on South Richmond Street in Dublin was fined €1,000 for a similar offence.
"This should send a clear message to traders that they must observe the requirements of the regulations . . . This legislation is a key weapon in the protection of consumer rights," said Ms Foley.
Under the terms of new legislation, maximum fines have risen to €3,000 for some offences - up from €127 under the old regulations.
In the last year, Ms Foley's office has secured 27 convictions, including the first custodial sentence, albeit suspended, arising from consumer legislation. A Co Tipperary car dealer received a two-month suspended sentence for the "clocking" of cars, the illegal practice of reducing the number of miles on a vehicle's milometer before selling it.
"This is a useful signal to unscrupulous car dealers and our inspectors are particularly aware of this as a problem," said Ms Foley.
She added that overall compliance by retailers had improved. "I don't believe that happened by accident. It happened due to visits by our inspectors.
"All this is not just for domestic consumers but I think it is having a positive impact on tourism, too," she added.
In all, the ODCA helpline received 32,000 calls last year, more than 3,000 in relation to buying clothes, some 2,700 about motor vehicles and about the same in connection with electrical goods. Several people rang concerning mobile phone companies, airlines and insurance.
Of the 27 convictions secured by the ODCA under consumer legislation in 2004 about one-third of those were pubs.