Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 48:

In page 32, between lines 22 and 23, to insert the following: “ “Act of 2022” means the Consumer Rights Act 2022;”.

These amendments were flagged on Committee Stage and they refer to alternative dispute resolution procedures. These amendments amend sections 38 to 40, inclusive, of the Bill. The intention of these amendments is to broaden the definition of relevant dispute under section 38 to ensure that Article 25 of the code is adequately transposed, to preserve existing provisions and to make some further amendments to section 39 and 40 of the Bill that are consequential to the amendment to section 38.

As originally drafted, section 38 did not fully reflect Article 25 of the code as it restricted the type of disputes under the code that could be referred to the dispute resolution process to disputes under Articles 102 to 107, inclusive, and 115, whereas Article 25 of the directive determines that the dispute resolution process should be applicable to disputes between providers and consumers arising under the directive and relating to the performance of contracts more generally. It also reduced the scope of the dispute resolution process such that some disputes that could be resolved under regulation No. 27 of the universal service regulations, SI 337/2011, would not now be able to be resolved under Part 5 of the Bill. Under the 2011 regime, ComReg currently resolves disputes in relation to section 45 of the Communications Regulation Act 2002 regarding overcharging and to Part 3 and Part 4 of such regulations 21 and 22, and Part 5 of the EU consumer information, cancellation and other rights regulations of 2013. These amendments will ensure that ComReg continues to be able to resolve these other categories of disputes.

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