180,000 products withdrawn, recalled from market in 2023

Over 180,000 unsafe products were withdrawn or recalled from the Irish market arising under the watch of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) last year.

That is according to the CCPC’s 2023 annual report which also outlines how four dawn raids were also carried out as part of two separate competition investigations.

The report also documents how the CCPC completed 37 competition compliance reviews investigations across a range of sectors and these included compliance review into online registration for athletic events and graduate gown procurement by technological universities.

The report documents how the CCPC carried out 2,214 consumer protection and product safety inspections in 2023 and the compliance inspections in 2023 covered unannounced visits to business and retail premises, online sweeps and inspections with Customs.

The report also states that in 2023, the CCPC drove compliance with seven manufacturers to ensure they urgently discharged their safety obligations towards 2,800 Irish consumers affected by unsafe gas hobs, that presented a serious risk of poisoning, burns, explosion and fire.

In the compliance review concerning the supply of graduate gowns, the report states that the CCPC secured commitments from several Irish technological universities to change their procurement practices in the supply of graduation gowns.

This arose from the CCPC receiving a complaint alleging possible anti-competitive conduct by Atlantic Technological University Donegal (ATU Donegal) regarding communications from ATU Donegal to students that they should source graduation gowns from only one supplier.

However, the CCPC concluded that “ATU Donegal did not contravene competition law”.

In the report, chairperson, Brian McHugh stated in 20223 “we removed more than 180,000 unsafe products from the Irish market, including travel adaptors, hurling helmets, water beads and toys with chemicals”.

The report states that the CCPC’s “proactive market surveillance resulted in 58,193 unsafe products being recalled or withdrawn from the Irish market”.

It added that the CCPC “investigated 139 notifications on unsafe products, resulting in the withdrawal or recall of over 122,225 products from the Irish market”.

Mr McHugh stated: “We know that 66% of Irish consumers who follow influencers reported buying a product as a result of an influencer mentioning it.”

He said in 2023 “we took part in a Europe-wide sweep and reviewed 40 Irish-based social media accounts to ensure they were disclosing adverts and we also published new guidance with the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland.

He added: “Our increased activity to protect consumers is reflected in the doubling of Compliance Notices sent out to traders for issues such as misleading pricing and incorrect returns information. The number of Fixed Payment Notices for offences such as failing to provide price labels increased by 206%.”

The CCPC is funded through a mix of State and Industry levy funding and the report states that the draft financial statements report expenditure of €18.16m exchequer-funded activities and €3.42m for levy-funded activities.

Reporting by Gordon Deegan