Consumer Rights Act 2022 – Developments And Learnings Over The Past Two Years

Introduction

In November 2022, the Consumer Rights Act 2022 (the "Act") was enacted and (with the exception of s.161) entered into force. The Act implements the Digital Content Directive (2019/770), the revised Sale of Goods Directive (2019/771) and the Omnibus Directive (2019/2161 amending the Consumer Rights Directive, Price Indication Directive, the Unfair Contracts Terms Directive and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive) into Irish law. The Act modernised and consolidated consumer protection legislation in Ireland, aligning it more closely with consumer protection rules across Europe and introduced changes to strengthen consumer rights and expand trader obligations, increase service provider accountability and transparency, and enhance the protection for consumers of digital content and services. The Act also afforded the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission ("CCPC") new enforcement powers and significantly increased the penalties for