Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)

I will build on my colleagues' comments by setting out some brief context. My office recently engaged with the Competition and Consumer Protection Authority on price setting and loyalty schemes operated by some of the larger supermarket companies. While I acknowledge the safeguards that the CCPC provides to customers, it has been calling for more substantial penalties for breaches of consumer protection law for some time. Will the Minister of State respond to some of that in her response to us this morning? What feedback is she getting from the CCPC in this regard since one of its roles is to make recommendations to Government?

In this jurisdiction, when businesses break competition rules, they can be fined by the CCPC but they do not face the same fines for breaking consumer protection laws as they do in other European countries. The CCPC has been calling for, and needs, legislative changes to give it power to impose larger fines for serious offences, for example, allowing the CCPC to issue fines that are a percentage of the business’s turnover. This would improve compliance with consumer protection laws almost immediately. In 2024, the CCPC took legal proceedings against Tesco for failing to include unit pricing on club card promotional shelf-edge labels. A company which posted sales of €3.4 billion in 2024 in Ireland had to make a donation of €1,000 to a charity as a consequence of breaking consumer law. The Minister of State will have to agree that there is something legislatively wrong when that is the consequence of such a significant breach. Can she tell me the CCPC is wrong when it says we need more substantial penalties for breaching consumer protection law?

Concerns have been raised with my office almost weekly since the election in relation to so-called loyalty schemes. These are schemes where it appears prices are lowered for loyalty card members on items such as dishwasher tablets, nappies and other regular household items but when one looks at the price per unit, per litre or per kilo it shows the standard price has been raised and the loyalty scheme price is just par to the usual price. There are no laws in place to restrict different pricing structures for loyalty customers. This is an area that merits significant legislative scrutiny.

As my colleagues have said, successive governments have not done enough. This motion offers the Government the opportunity to do more - to listen to the CCPC and the people who are struggling so much. We can do more and empowering the CCPC would be a really welcome first step.

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