What we do with information you provide
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is grateful to everyone who takes the time to contact us and highlight areas where legislation may have been breached.
We are not an ombudsman and so we cannot act on individual consumer contacts or get involved in individual consumer or business issues. We will give you information on your rights to help you resolve the issue yourself.
All the information we receive is recorded – in line with data protection legislation and best practice – on our database which is analysed on an ongoing basis to identify where markets are not working well. This analysis allows us to prioritise our work in the areas where it can have the greatest impact.
We may investigate an issue if we feel there is a potential breach of the law and we are satisfied that it meets our prioritisation criteria. Due to the volume of contacts we receive, it is not possible for us to respond to individuals about any possible investigation we may take.
If, after investigating, we believe that a business is in breach of legislation, we have a number of enforcement tools we can use which are:
- Civil proceedings – prohibition orders, undertakings
- Compliance notices
- Criminal proceedings
- Fixed payment notices
- Publishing trader names
If enforcement action is not appropriate, we can use our advocacy role to try to bring about changes to make markets work better.
Examples of possible breaches of legislation which we review:
- Clocked and/or crashed cars
- Product safety
- Consumer Rights Directive and e-commerce
- Package holidays
- Pricing
- Pyramid schemes
- Misleading advertising
- Anti–competitive behaviour – this includes:
- Price fixing
- Market sharing
- Limiting production
- Bid-rigging/collusive tendering
- Abusing a dominant position
To report anti-competitive behaviour or practices click here.
