Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The level of the potential fine on conviction on indictment of €500,000 might appear to be a large sum, but it is not for some of the operators. The transposition of the ECN+ directive this year gave the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, power to issue fines of up to €10 million or 10% of turnover. The general data protection regulation, GDPR, provides for fines of €20 million or 4% of global turnover. We are talking about huge operations in some instances and if they are breaching what are already very restrictive UTP regulations and if they are doing it on a large scale, their profits could be significantly more than the €500,000 fine they could receive. Would it be appropriate to look at the powers the Dáil has legislated for in the last couple of years in respect of the CCPC and copy and paste them into this Bill with regard to fines?