What we do
About the CCPC
The CCPC is the statutory body responsible for enforcing and promoting compliance with competition, consumer protection and product safety law. The CCPC also has important and expanding roles in relation to digital markets and data.
Our aim is to make markets work better for consumers. Consumers benefit from competitive markets as firms are incentivised to produce better products and services at lower prices. Consumer protection law creates rights for consumers and imposes corresponding obligations on traders that must be honoured. CCPC market surveillance keep Irish markets safe by recalling, withdrawing or preventing the entry of unsafe or non compliant products.
We represent consumer interest, providing research, policy recommendations and a strong voice in public debates to promote competition and consumer welfare. We inform and empower consumers by providing information on their rights, personal finance and product safety, through our consumer helpline, our website (ccpc.ie), public awareness campaigns and our various financial education initiatives. We encourage compliance by providing information and guidance to businesses on their obligations.
The CCPC mission, vision and values
Our mission
To protect and promote competition and consumer rights.
Our vision
Competitive markets where consumers are informed, protected and empowered.
Our values
Independence, courage, collaboration, agility and ambition.
What we do
Our strategic goals 2027 - 2029
1. Help consumers with cost of living pressures
The CCPC’s role in enforcing competition and consumer protection law already contributes to making Ireland more affordable by ensuring that prices are driven down by competition, and that consumers are not misled and so get value for money. However, the CCPC recognises that affordability is a key issue for Irish households, so it will take the following additional targeted actions to help consumers with cost of living pressures:
- Improve affordability in essential markets by influencing legislative/regulatory change, monitoring competition and prioritising enforcement activity.
- Improving consumers’ financial wellbeing.
2. Drive a step change in business compliance across consumer protection law
The CCPC has significantly increased enforcement activity relating to consumer protection issues (including product safety and consumer enforcement) in recent years. This increased enforcement activity has increased compliance and will continue in the next strategic period. But these laws are still not a mainstream focus for all businesses. Over the next strategy period the CCPC will ensure that consumer protection law compliance becomes a key priority for businesses through a combination of enhanced advocacy, business engagement and enforcement. This will be supported by the following actions:
- Establishing a new administrative consumer enforcement regime.
- Targeted consumer and product safety enforcement action to increase deterrence in high harm, low compliance areas.
- Balance longer term enforcement cases with immediate interventions to address emerging consumer issues.
3. Maximise our effectiveness in competition enforcement and merger control
In the last strategic period, the CCPC established a new adjudication function to support the administrative fining regime for breaches of competition law introduced by the Competition (Amendment) Act 2022. We also restructured our mergers and competition enforcement teams and prohibited a merger for the second time since the CCPC was established in 2014. In the next strategic period, the CCPC will build on this to maximise our effectiveness in competition enforcement and merger control:
- Identify and take action against cartel activity in public procurement.
- Ensure there are serious consequences for breaches of competition law.
- Implement a more risk-based and transparent merger review process.
4. Make digital markets work better for consumers
The rate of digitally enhanced change in our economy has significantly accelerated in recent years. This poses opportunities and threats to Irish consumers. Over the next strategic period, the CCPC will ensure digital markets work better for consumers by prioritising digital areas within the CCPC’s remit where consumers are experiencing harm. The CCPC will achieve this goal through the following actions:
- Ensure AI works in the consumer’s interest.
- Ensure new EU digital and data regulation delivers for consumers.
- Prevent domestic digital platforms from restricting competition.
- Tackle new areas of consumer harm in digital markets.
5. Deliver more impact through efficiency and capability improvements
In the last strategic period, the CCPC significantly increased its activity and impact across its remit. The CCPC aims to continue this trend in the next strategic period while also ensuring that additional activity maximises value for money. The CCPC will achieve this by taking the following targeted actions:
- Increase digitisation and automation.
- Strengthen efficient resource allocation.
- Empower our people.
- Prioritise most impactful work and deliver at pace.
