Unfair sales practices

When you buy goods, services and digital content and services in Ireland or the EU, consumer law protects you against unfair sales practices.

Many unfair, misleading and aggressive sales practices are banned (prohibited) if they harm or are likely to harm you.

A sales practice is considered ‘unfair’ if it meets these conditions:

• It is misleading (giving false information or leaving out important information) or aggressive (putting pressure on you to buy)
• It is likely to distort your buying decision

What sales contracts are covered?

Consumer law covers business-to-consumer sales.

A consumer is a person who buys a product, service or digital content or service for personal use or consumption.

A business or trader is a person acting for purposes related to their trade, business or profession.

The law does not cover business-to-business or consumer-to-consumer sales.

Traders are not allowed to use misleading sales practices to influence your decision to buy their product or service.

A practice is misleading if it:

• Provides false or untruthful information
• Deceives or is likely to deceive you
• Cause you to take a decision that you would not otherwise have taken

False or inaccurate information

A sales practice is misleading if it includes false or inaccurate information about:

• The existence or nature of a product, service or digital content or service
• Main characteristics of the product, service or digital content or service, including its availability at a particular time, place, or at a particular price
• Usage and prior history
• The price of the product, service or digital content or service, how the price was calculated or the existence and nature of a specific price advantage
• The existence, extent or nature of any approval or sponsorship (direct or indirect) of the product by others
• Your consumer rights, including when, how or under what circumstances those rights may be exercised

Marketing and advertising

Marketing or advertising sales practices are misleading if it causes you to confuse:

• A competitor's product with the trader's product
• A competitor's trade name or trademark, or some other distinguishing feature or mark, with that of the trader
• A branded product as being identical to products in another EU Member State, when it has significantly different composition or characteristics

Codes of practice

A sales practice is misleading if:

• It involves a false claim that the trader complies with a code of practice
• The trader does not comply with that code of practice

Leaving out information

A sales practice is misleading if the trader leaves out or hides important information that you need to make an informed buying decision.

Unclear information

A sales practice is misleading if the trader:

• Gives you important information in a way that is unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely
• Does not identify the commercial intent of the information

Consumer law bans traders from using aggressive commercial practices. A practice is aggressive if harassment, coercion, or undue influence (exploiting a position of power) is used and this is likely to:

• Impair your freedom of choice
• Affect your buying decisions

Aggressive commercial practices include:

• Sales tactics that try to intimidate or coerce you
• The use of threatening or abusive language or behaviour
• Practices that try to take advantage of vulnerable consumers
• Imposing difficult or unreasonable non-contractual barriers when you want to end the contract or switch to another product or trader
• Threats to take legal action when the trader has no basis for such action

The law sets out a blacklist of commercial practices. These practices are always banned (prohibited) even if they do not affect a consumer's decision.

Banned practices include:

• Bait advertising: Advertising products or services at a very low or special price when the trader knows they cannot provide it or there isn’t enough stock available at that price
• Switch and bait: Promoting one product or service with the intention of selling you something else
• Endorsements and authorisations: False claims that a product or trader has an endorsement or authorisation that does not exist or that the product or trader is not in compliance with
• Product reviews: Stating that reviews have been submitted by real customers without verifying that they are by actual users of the product or service
• Fake product reviews: Paying people to write fake reviews or make false endorsements, including on social media
• Ticket resale: Reselling tickets that were bought using bot (automated) software
• Online search queries: Giving search results based on your online search query without clearly disclosing any paid ad or sponsorship payment
• Closing down or moving: False claims that a trader is about to stop trading or move premises
• Unsupported or untrue cure claims: False claims that the product or service can cure illnesses
• False offers of prizes or gifts: Prize promotions where there is either no prize or you must make a payment in order to claim a prize
• Special rights: Traders cannot claim that they are granting you special rights when these are already rights that you have by law
• Manipulation of children: Advertisements directly aimed at getting children to buy products or persuade adults to buy for them
• Persistent unwanted communications: Traders and marketing companies are not allowed to make persistent and unwanted offers to you by phone, fax, email or any other form of communications
• Seeking payment for unsolicited goods: Sending products that you did not order to your address and then demanding payment
• False use of limited offers: A trader tells you that a particular offer will only be available for a limited time, when that is not the case, and tries to pressure you into buying
• Hidden advertisements in media: Not making it clear (by using images, words or sound) that a newspaper article, TV programme or radio broadcast has been sponsored by a company as a way to advertise its goods or service
• Pressure selling: Creating an impression that you cannot leave the premises until you sign a contract
• Aggressive doorstep selling: A door-to-door salesperson that comes to your home and ignores your request to leave or not return

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) and the Central Bank of Ireland (Central Bank) are responsible for enforcing the rules around unfair commercial practices.

• The CCPC is responsible for enforcing the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act 2007 and the Consumer Rights Act 2022 (pdf). The CCPC can take enforcement action against a trader who fails to comply with consumer law.
• The Central Bank enforces the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act in the financial services sector.

You can find out more about the CCPC, the Central Bank and other consumer protection organisations.

You can get advice and further help in our section on how to complain.

If you believe that a trader has used unfair, misleading or aggressive or blacklisted sales practices, you can report this to the CCPC. If the complaint is about a financial service, you can report it to the Central Bank.

Both the CCPC and the Central Bank can use this information to inform their compliance and enforcement roles. However, they do not intervene in individual complaints.

You have the right to seek redress if you have been treated unfairly. The right to redress means the right to correct a situation if your consumer rights have been breached.

There are different redress options open to you, includig taking legal action against the trader.

You can find out more information about the small claims procedure and taking a civil case.

The EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices is the EU law that regulates unfair commercial practices by sellers or suppliers (traders). The EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices became law in Ireland through the Consumer Protection Act 2007.

The laws on unfair sales practices were updated and supplemented by the EU Omnibus Directive, which modernises consumer rights, particularly for online sales and digital contracts and services. In Ireland, the changes on unfair sales practices were implemented through the Consumer Rights Act 2022 (pdf).

You can find out more about the EU Directives on unfair commercial practices on YourEurope.