- within Compliance, Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment and Strategy topic(s)
The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (the "Department") has launched a public consultation on proposed changes to Irish competition and consumer law.
The Department is proposing the Consumer Protection, Competition and Enforcement Bill 2026 and is seeking views on three areas:
1: New competition law investigation power to screen public tender data for bid-rigging
Bid-rigging is when businesses agree to fix the outcome of a tender or bidding process. This is a cartel offence in breach of competition law and can result in higher prices than would be reached through competitive tendering.
In 2020, the Hamilton Report on structures and strategies to prevent, investigate and penalise economic crime and corruption made the following recommendation:
"The Review Group therefore recommends enabling (through legislation as required) the CCPC and other relevant bodies to access and process e-tenders data for the purposes of detecting potential criminal activity including bid-rigging, fraud and corruption."
On foot of this recommendation, the Department is proposing to give the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (the "CCPC") the power to access public procurement data to help identify potential bid-rigging cartel practices. The Department is seeking views on the safeguards that should be in place to ensure that the CCPC's proposed powers are exercised proportionally.
The proposal raises obvious potential concerns, in particular for private businesses whose confidential tenders might be accessed by the CCPC and for bodies regulated by procurement law whose tender processes might be reviewed by the CCPC. Any new potential CCPC powers must be compliant with EU procurement law, which places a heavy onus on the recipient of a tender to preserve the confidentiality of the tender. The technical details on the proposed level of access and bidder anonymisation will be of critical importance in seeking to address concerns regarding the proposal. More fundamental questions also arise including in relation to (i) whether the risks of the proposal are outweighed by its benefits, (ii) whether such powers are really necessary, and (iii) whether less risky and more all-encompassing targeted methods of improving cartel detection have been fully harnessed.
2: Administrative financial sanctions
In relation to consumer law: the Department is proposing to grant the CCPC powers to impose direct fines on businesses for breaching consumer law. Under proposals, the CCPC would have the power to impose administrative fines in limited circumstances, such as where a business commits an egregious or systemic breach of consumer law.
The CCPC currently has powers under the Consumer Rights Act 2022 to issue fixed payment notices of €1,500 for consumer law breaches. While €1,500 seems like a small amount, established practice in Ireland is to issue multiple €1,500 fixed penalty notices in respect of a single infringing practice, taking into account the number of affected consumers. This can give rise to what are in practice very high regulator-imposed fines. Currently, the CCPC also has powers to bring court proceedings whereby high fines for consumer law breaches can be imposed by the Irish Courts, including fines of up to 4% of turnover for cross-border breaches of EU consumer law.
3: Clarifying consumer rights and remedies
The Department is considering amending consumer protection legislation to make it easier to understand. For example, there are proposals to update the Consumer Rights Act 2022 to clarify how price reductions should be calculated, and when consumers can cancel contracts without penalty. We are not clear on the details of what exactly is under consideration and how it interacts with EU law rules.
To the extent that the Department is intending on making changes to cancellation rights in respect of distance / online contracts during cooling off periods, it will be important to understand how any proposed changes impact on the Department of Finance's plan to implement the EU's Withdrawal Directive which includes cancellation rights rules which apply to all online contracts.
Next steps
The closing date for submissions to this consultation is 5pm on Friday, 27 February 2026 and submissions can be emailed to the Department's Consumer Policy Unit at conspol@enterprise.gov.ie.
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