A new bill to consolidate consumer rights laws in Ireland into one comprehensive, modern piece of legislation was presented in April of this year and at the time of writing, it is currently before the Seanad Eireann in the second stage. The bill is an effort to make Irish consumer rights easier to understand so that buyers know their rights and businesses understand their obligations.
If you operate a business in Ireland, you’ll want to familiarise yourself with the bill and its directives. We’ve summarised the main contents of the bill below into an easy-to-understand cheatsheet. It’s not legal advice – we’re not solicitors – but it’s a solid outline of the bill’s most important points and how they might affect your business.
Key Changes
The new bill applies to contracts with a consumer for goods or services, and some of the bill pointedly applies to financial services (for a breakdown of the financial services specifics, read more here). Its contents support:
- Stronger rights for consumers when it comes to the quality, fitness for purpose, and delivery of the goods or services they’ve purchased
- Legal solutions for buyers when the products or services they’ve purchased don’t meet technical or industry standards
- More protection for consumers when they’ve entered a contract for good with digital components, like smartphones or smart appliances
- Keeping and expanding the current list of terms in business contracts that are considered unfair. These are outlined in the UTCC (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts) Regulations.
- Including a new list of contractual terms that are unfair, like
- Making the consumer carry the burden of proof when the business should legally carry it instead
- Getting the consumer who is in legal arbitration to pay their own legal costs
- Insisting that a consumer can only bring suit against a business in the jurisdiction where that business is located
- You can read more specifics of this list in Section 132 of the new bill
- New powers of enforcement for the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission so that they can enforce the bill’s laws against businesses who don’t comply
Digital Content
When a consumer buys a product or service in the real world and it doesn’t work, they are guaranteed rights to remedy the situation. But currently, there are no similar laws for digital products and services. The new bill changes that by ensuring contracts for products and services delivered digitally, such as website designs or software, guarantee the same rights for consumers as their physical counterparts.
Under the new bill, digital goods and services need to be operable and functional, delivering the quality and quantity agreed upon in the contract. They also need to be fit for the agreed purpose, installed, and maintained as the contract states.
Digital goods and services have to be operable, functional, and retain the agreed upon quality and quantity for the entire duration of the contract.
If a consumer feels that the digital product or service they’ve bought doesn’t meet the terms of the contract, they have a right to ask the business to bring the product or service up to standard as long as this won’t impose a disproportionate cost on the business. But the business is obliged to:
- Fix the problem free of charge,
- In a reasonable timeframe,
- And without inconvenience to the consumer.
If the business doesn’t comply with the contract they’ve signed, there will be legal remedies like forcing the business to honour the contract, reducing the price of the product or service, or allowing the consumer to terminate the contract.
The new bill also makes it illegal for businesses to write reviews of themselves online or to commission fake reviews to falsely improve their reviews ratings.
The new bill also makes it illegal for businesses to write reviews of themselves online or to commission fake reviews to falsely improve their reviews ratings.
How to ensure you’re compliant with the new bill
- Many of the rules outlined in the Irish Consumer Rights Bill 2022 are already extended to consumers through EU law. Still, if you haven’t written your contracts to specifically align with EU consumer law, now’s a good time to double check they are compliant.
- To ensure you’re compliant with the new bill, you’ll want to:
- Review your contracts for any terms that remove the onus of responsibility from your business and place it with the consumer
- Review the dates in your contracts to ensure that you are providing your customers with continuing service for the entire length of the contract
- Review contact information and redress processes in your contracts so that customers have a clear process for asking your business for remedies
- Remove any fake or misleading ads or reviews you may have online
- Talk to legal counsel about any questions you may have, including elements of your contract that you think may violate the new bill. Remember that if you’re a member of Retail Excellence Ireland, you can avail of free legal advice and support.
We might not be legal experts, but we are Ireland’s experts in ethical, accessible website design and digital marketing to boost eCommerce revenue. So if you’re ready to watch your online business grow, get in touch today!
