Consumer Protection Bill Announced
Author: Duncan Grehan & Conor Griffin

The first draft of the new Consumer Protection (National Consumer Agency) Bill has been published. When brought into force the Act will establish a new National Consumer Agency which will be funded by the Government to act on behalf of consumers. This will replace the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs. The Act will also prohibit a number of practices such as pyramid selling, prize draw scams, making false or misleading claims about products and persistent cold calling of consumers. In total the Act will list 31 practices which will be forbidden in all circumstances. Persons acting in breach of the new laws will face fines of up to €150,000 and/or up to 5 years imprisonment depending on the offence. The Act will also implement the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and is due to be in force later in 2007.