Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Under the general rules governing fair trading, we do not provide the detailed regulations that are being set out here. Compliance obligations are in place because we would not be able to carry out enforcement without them. They are necessary with regard to the keeping of records. The small firm for which the Deputy is advocating will also have to be compliant in its practices. There are two sides to this argument and we are trying to strike a balance between introducing new compliance obligations for a public purpose, of which we are all aware, and ensuring these obligations are not disproportionate to the risk involved. One chooses a threshold for this reason. As I stated, the threshold was selected for a variety of reasons. If it were lowered, we would add to the administrative compliance costs for businesses, including smaller companies. Moreover, we would do so without having a prima facieground for suggesting it would have any significant benefit, as these companies are not the players who are typically abusing a position of power in the marketplace. We are trying to strike a balance. As such, the €50 million threshold has a good underpinning.