Consumer Rights Act 2022

PART 1 Preliminary and general

1. Short title and commencement

1. (1) This Act may be cited as the Consumer Rights Act 2022.

(2) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister may appoint by order or orders either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so appointed for different purposes or different provisions.

2. Interpretation

2. (1) In this Act—

“Act of 1995” means the Consumer Credit Act 1995;

“Act of 2007” means the Consumer Protection Act 2007;

“commercial guarantee”, in relation to a sales contract, means any undertaking by a trader or producer to a consumer (in addition to the trader’s legal obligation to supply goods in conformity with the sales contract) to reimburse the price paid or to repair, replace or service goods in any way if they do not meet the specifications or any other requirements not related to conformity set out in the guarantee statement or in the relevant advertising available at the time of, or before, the conclusion of the sales contract;

“compatibility” means the ability of digital content, digital services or goods to function with hardware or software with which digital content, digital services or goods of the same type is or are normally used without the need to convert the digital content, digital service, goods, hardware or software;

“consumer” means an individual acting for purposes that are wholly or mainly outside that individual’s trade, business, craft or profession;

“delivery” means voluntary transfer of possession from one person to another;

“digital content” means data which are produced and supplied in digital form, including in particular computer programs, applications, video files, audio files, music files, digital games, e-books and other e-publications;

“digital content contract” means a contract under which—

(a) a trader supplies or undertakes to supply digital content to a consumer, and

(b) the consumer either or both:

(i) pays or undertakes to pay the price of the digital content;

(ii) provides or undertakes to provide personal data to the trader, other than where the personal data are processed by the trader only for the purpose of supplying the digital content in accordance with this Act or complying with any other legal requirement to which the trader is subject;

“digital service” means—

(a) a service that allows a consumer to create, process, store or access data in digital form, or

(b) a service that allows the sharing of or any other interaction with data in digital form uploaded or created by a consumer or other users of that service,

and includes in particular video and audio sharing and other file hosting, social media, and word processing and games offered in the cloud computing environment;

“digital service contract” means a contract under which—

(a) a trader supplies or undertakes to supply a digital service to a consumer, and

(b) the consumer either or both:

(i) pays or undertakes to pay the price of the digital service;

(ii) provides or undertakes to provide personal data to the trader, other than where the personal data are processed by the trader only for the purpose of supplying the digital service in accordance with this Act or complying with any other legal requirement to which the trader is subject;

“distance contract” means a contract concluded between a trader and a consumer under an organised distance sales or service-provision scheme without the simultaneous physical presence of the trader and the consumer, and with the exclusive use of one or more means of distance communication up to and including the time at which the contract is concluded;

“district heating” means the supply of heat (in the form of steam, hot water or otherwise) to multiple buildings from a central source of production through a transmission and distribution system for the purpose of heating;

“durable medium” means any instrument which enables a consumer or a trader to store information addressed personally to that person in a way that is accessible for future reference, for a period of time adequate for the purposes of the information, and which allows the unchanged reproduction of the information stored;

“electronic communications service” means a service normally provided for remuneration via electronic communications networks, which encompasses, with the exception of a service providing, or exercising editorial control over, content transmitted using electronic communications networks and services, the following types of service—

(a) a publicly available electronic communications service that provides an internet access service,

(b) an interpersonal communications service, and

(c) a service consisting wholly or mainly in the conveyance of signals such as a transmission service used for the provision of a machine-to-machine service and for broadcasting;

“enactment” has the same meaning as it has in the Interpretation Act 2005;

“financial service” means any service of a kind normally provided in the ordinary course of carrying on a banking business, an insurance business or a business of providing credit, personal pensions, an investment service or a payment service;

“functionality” means the ability of goods, digital content or digital services to perform their functions having regard to their purpose;

“goods” means any tangible movable items (other than money and any item sold by way of execution or otherwise by authority of law) and includes—

(a) any tangible movable items that incorporate, or are inter-connected with, digital content or a digital service in such a way that the absence of that digital content or digital service would prevent the goods from performing their functions, and

(b) water, gas and electricity where they are supplied in a limited volume or set quantity;

“goods with digital elements” means any tangible movable items that fall within paragraph (a) of the definition of “goods”;

“internet access service” means a publicly available electronic communications service that provides access to the internet, and thereby connectivity to virtually all end points of the internet, irrespective of the network technology and terminal equipment used;

“interoperability” means the ability of goods, digital content or a digital service to function with hardware or software different from those with which goods, digital content or digital services of the same type are normally used;

“interpersonal communications service” means a service normally provided for remuneration that enables direct interpersonal and interactive exchange of information via electronic communications networks between a finite number of persons, whereby the persons initiating or participating in the communication determine its recipients and does not include services which enable interpersonal and interactive communication merely as a minor ancillary feature that is intrinsically linked to another service;

“Minister” means the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment;

“number-based interpersonal communications service” means an interpersonal communications service which connects with publicly assigned numbering resources, namely, a number or numbers in national or international numbering plans, or which enables communication with a number or numbers in national or international numbering plans;

“off-premises contract” means any of the following contracts between a trader and a consumer:

(a) a contract concluded in the simultaneous physical presence of the trader and the consumer in a place which is not the business premises of the trader;

(b) a contract for which an offer was made by the consumer in the simultaneous physical presence of the trader and the consumer in a place which is not the business premises of the trader;

(c) a contract concluded on the business premises of the trader or through any means of distance communication immediately after the consumer was personally and individually addressed in a place which is not the business premises of the trader in the simultaneous physical presence of the trader and the consumer;

(d) a contract concluded during an excursion organised by the trader with the aim or effect of promoting and selling goods or services to the consumer;

“ownership” means the general property in goods and not merely a special or limited property;

“personal data” has the same meaning as it has in the Data Protection Act 2018;

“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister;

“producer” means a manufacturer of goods, an importer of goods into the European Union or any person purporting to be a producer by placing the person’s name, trade mark or other distinctive sign on the goods and includes any person acting in the name, or on behalf, of the producer;

“sales contract” (other than in Part 5) has the meaning assigned to it by section 11(1);

“service” means any service or facility (other than digital content, a digital service and a service provided under a contract of employment or apprenticeship) and includes in particular—

(a) a service or facility for—

(i) financial or other professional services,

(ii) amusement, cultural activities, entertainment, instruction, recreation or refreshment,

(iii) accommodation,

(iv) communication, including electronic communication,

(v) transport, travel, parking or storage,

(vi) the care and maintenance of persons, animals or things, or

(vii) the construction, maintenance or repair of buildings,

(b) the supply of—

(i) water, gas or electricity where it is not supplied in a limited volume or set quantity, or

(ii) district heating,

and

(c) any rights, benefits, privileges, obligations or facilities that are, or are to be, provided, granted or conferred in the course of a service;

“service contract” (other than in Part 5) means a contract (other than a sales contract and a contract for the sale of land (within the meaning of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009)) under which—

(a) a trader supplies or undertakes to supply a service to a consumer, and

(b) the consumer pays or undertakes to pay the price of the service;

“trader” means—

(a) a natural person, or

(b) a legal person, whether—

(i) privately owned,

(ii) publicly owned, or

(iii) partly privately owned and partly publicly owned,

who is acting for purposes relating to the person’s trade, business, craft or profession, and includes any person acting in the name, or on behalf, of the trader.

(2) In subsection (1), in the definitions of “digital content contract”, “digital service contract” and “service contract”, any reference to the consumer paying a price includes a reference to the consumer using by way of payment any facility by which payment is made.

(3) It is for a trader claiming that an individual was not acting for purposes wholly or mainly outside that individual’s trade, business, craft or profession to show that the individual was not so acting.

(4) A reference in this Act to the sale of goods includes a reference to the transfer of, or an undertaking to transfer, the ownership of those goods.

(5) A reference in this Act to the supply of a service or a digital service includes a reference to the performance, rendering or provision of the service or of the digital service, as the case may be.

(6) In Parts 2 to 4, a reference to a reasonable expectation shall be interpreted having regard objectively to the nature and purpose of the contract concerned, the circumstances of the case and the usages and practices of the parties to the contract.

3. Regulations

3. (1) The Minister may by regulations provide for any matter referred to in this Act as prescribed or to be prescribed.

(2) The Minister may make different regulations under this Act for different classes or description of consumer, trader or contract.

(3) Regulations under this Act may contain such incidental, supplementary and consequential provision as appears to the Minister to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of the regulations.

(4) Every regulation made under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under it.

4. Making of contract

4. (1) Subject to the enactments specified in subsection (2), a contract to which any of Parts 2 to 6 applies—

(a) may be made—

(i) in writing,

(ii) by word of mouth, or

(iii) partly in writing and partly by word of mouth,

or

(b) may be implied from the conduct of the parties.

(2) The enactments referred to in subsection (1) are—

(a) sections 103 to 109,

(b) sections 30, 32, 36, 57, 58 and 84 of the Act of 1995,

(c) Regulations 8, 9 and 13 of the European Communities (Consumer Credit Agreements) Regulations 2010 (S.I. No. 281 of 2010), and

(d) any other enactment that makes provision in relation to the making of a contract.

5. Contract terms may be more favourable to consumer

5. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as prohibiting the inclusion in a contract between a consumer and a trader of a term that is more favourable to the consumer than a right or remedy afforded to the consumer by or under this Act.

6. Powers of court in relation to remedies under Parts 2 to 4

6. (1) In any proceedings relating to a contract to which any of Parts 2 to 4 applies, the court, in addition to any other power that it may have, shall have power—

(a) to make an order for the provision of a remedy that is specified in subsection (2), and

(b) to make such incidental or ancillary order as it thinks fit.

(2) The remedies referred to in subsection (1)(a) are any of the following remedies—

(a) the repair or replacement of goods,

(b) a reduction in the price of goods, digital content, a digital service or a service, and

(c) a remedy for bringing digital content, a digital service or a service into conformity with the contract under which it is supplied.

(3) In this section, “court” means—

(a) the District Court,

(b) the Circuit Court, or

(c) the High Court.

7. Representations purporting to restrict rights of consumer: offences

7. (1) Subsections (2) and (3) apply to any representation likely to be taken as indicating that—

(a) a right or the exercise of a right conferred by any of Parts 2 to 4, or

(b) an obligation or a liability arising under any of those Parts,

is restricted or excluded otherwise than in accordance with this Act.

(2) It shall be an offence for a trader to do any of the following things in relation to a representation to which subsection (1) applies:

(a) to display on any part of any premises a notice that includes any such representation;

(b) to publish or cause to be published an advertisement which contains any such representation;

(c) to supply goods bearing, or digital content or a digital service displaying in any form, any such representation;

(d) otherwise to furnish or to cause to be furnished a document including any such representation.

(3) For the purposes of this section, the following shall be treated as a representation to which subsection (1) applies:

(a) a representation to the effect that reimbursement will not be made for goods, digital content, a digital service or a service sold or supplied under a contract to which any of Parts 2 to 4 applies (any such goods, digital content, digital service or service so sold or supplied being referred to in this section as “relevant items”) that are not in conformity with the contract concerned;

(b) a representation to the effect that reimbursement for relevant items that are not in conformity with the contract concerned will be made only in the form of credit notes or gift vouchers;

(c) a representation to the effect that relevant items that are not in conformity with the contract concerned will not be replaced, repaired, remedied or otherwise brought into conformity with the contract concerned; or

(d) a representation that is otherwise likely to be taken as indicating that—

(i) a right or the exercise of a right conferred by any of Parts 2 to 4, or

(ii) an obligation or a liability arising under any of those Parts,

is restricted or excluded otherwise than in accordance with this Act.

(4) In this section, “representation” includes—

(a) any oral, written, visual, descriptive or other representation by a trader, including any commercial communication, marketing or advertising, and

(b) a notice or other document used or relied on by a trader in connection with a contract with a consumer.

8. Repeals and revocations

8. (1) The Acts specified in column (3) of Part 1 of Schedule 1 are repealed to the extent specified in column (4) of that Part of that Schedule.

(2) The statutory instruments specified in column (3) of Part 2 of Schedule 1 are revoked to the extent specified in column (4) of that Part of that Schedule.

9. Savings

9. (1) Where, before the day on which section 12(1) comes into operation, a contract was concluded to which Part 2 would apply if it had been concluded on or after that day—

(a) the Sale of Goods Act, 1893 and the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980 shall continue to have effect in relation to the contract as if the amendments made by Part 1 of Schedule 6 had not been made, and

(b) the European Communities (Certain Aspects of the Sale of Consumer Goods and Associated Guarantees) Regulations 2003 (S.I. No. 11 of 2003) shall continue to have effect in relation to the contract notwithstanding the revocation of those Regulations by Part 2 of Schedule 1.

(2) Where, before the day on which section 75(1) comes into operation, a contract was concluded to which Part 4 would apply if it had been concluded on or after that day, the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980 shall continue to have effect in relation to the contract as if the amendments made by Part 1 of Schedule 6 inserting a new section 38A into that Act and amending section 47 of it had not been made.