What Is the CCPC and How Does It Protect Consumer Rights?

By David Tait Reviewed by Cormac Breen

Editorial Manager

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is an independent statutory body in Ireland that enforces competition and consumer protection law. Within this, they investigate potentially anti-competitive behaviour along with informing consumers of their rights and while also promoting consumer welfare.

What Is the CCPC?

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is an independent statutory body in Ireland that enforces competition and consumer protection law.

The CCPC has a wide range of powers and responsibilities, including:

• Investigating anti-competitive behaviour and taking enforcement action where necessary.
• Enforcing consumer protection laws, such as those relating to unfair commercial practices, product safety, and consumer credit
• Providing information and advice to consumers about their rights.
• Promoting competition and consumer welfare in Ireland.

The CCPC works to make markets work better for consumers by representing their interests nationally and internationally. It also works to empower consumers to make informed choices and to encourage business compliance with the law.

What Are the CCPC’s Goals?

As the main competition regulator, the CCPC has a number of objectives it wants to achieve in order to ensure that consumers are properly protected against unfair practices from private companies.

The CCPC sets out these objectives in a Strategy Statement, where it outlines its Strategic Goals and Ambitions:

1. Enforcing Compliance
   The CCPC will focus on ensuring that customers are protected against uncompetitive and potentially harmful practices and products from different companies.
2. Empower and Inform
   The CCPC also wants to ensure consumers have access to reliable information so they are able to make informed decisions for their finances and bills.
3. Advocacy and Research
   The CCPC aims to be the “leading voice” when it comes to representing the interests of consumers and making sure that markets can operate as efficiently as possible in order to guarantee fair competition.
4. Structure and Resource
   Also, part of the Strategic statement, the CCPC will invest in itself to ensure it keeps up with its quality of governance in order to best protect customers.

How Does the CCPC Protect Customers?

The CCPR protects customers through a number of methods and functions. These are split broadly into three main roles of enforcing rules, providing information, and regulating:

1. Enforcing Rules
   The CCPC makes sure to enforce a range of competition and consumer protection laws in order to make sure businesses are complying so they don’t violate consumer rights. The CCPC are also involved in overseeing mergers of two or more companies.
2. Providing Information
   The CCPC will also help by providing a body of information about customer rights, so consumers don’t have to feel at the mercy of private businesses. They also provide different tools to help you know that you’re getting your money’s worth when paying for a service or a product.
3. Regulation
   The regulation side of the CCPC’s work is much more to do with businesses rather than consumers, providing small businesses with the tools so they can operate compliantly.

What Else Does the CCPC Do?

As well as enforcing consumer protection laws, the CCPC also provides a range of services that are useful to consumers.

On the customer-related part of the CCPC homepage, you will find a number of sections tailored to helping customers understand where they stand in each market and situation.

Here’s a list of the sections you can find:

• Money Hub
  Guides on how to handle personal finances, as well as explanations of different financial products such as loans and mortgages (as well as loan and mortgage calculators). They also offer advice on pensions and debt, as well as how to save on energy bills and compare providers!
• Housing
  Helping customers to understand the process of buying and selling a house, as well as how to avoid rental scams. They also inform customers about home insurance.
• Cars
  Providing information on buying cars as well as what insurance you will need to buy. The CCPC also helps with knowing what your rights are in regard to crashed cars and what to do with contaminated fuel.
• Shopping
  This section helps customers deal with different shopping scenarios such as faulty goods and misleading advertisements. They also advise customers on direct debit chargebacks and pricing rules.
• How To Complain
  The CCPC provides detailed information on how to complain to a given business in a given industry and what to include as evidence and information in a complaint letter. It also informs customers on which bodies they can contact to take their complaints further.
• Moving Bank
  The CCPC also provides customers with a step-by-step checklist on how to change banks, including how to compare and how to get a credit check done.

Within each of these sections, you will find a detailed but straightforward explanation of a customer's rights regarding each situation that you might find yourself in when dealing with a business.

It will also outline what is expected of a business, detailing what they need to do to ensure they are following the law.

What Is the Difference Between the CCPC and the CRU?

The CCPC and the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU), are both regulatory bodies in Ireland, but they have different areas of focus.

1. CCPC
   Focuses on promoting competition and protecting consumers across various markets. They investigate anti-competitive behaviour, enforce consumer protection laws, and provide information to consumers.
2. CRU
   Focuses specifically on the regulation of the energy market. They ensure that consumers have access to reliable and affordable services in these sectors.

How Can I Contact the CCPC?

You can contact the CCPC in order to speak to someone about the help that is also provided on the website.

However, the CCPC will not handle an individual complaint for you nor give you any advice on your particular situation and will, instead, redirect you to the correct body and tell you who to call.