The European Commission has given the State two months to act on what it said was a failure to transpose EU consumer rights protections and disability access rules into national law or face being taken to the European Court of Justice.
In a statement, the EU executive said it had decided “to continue two infringement procedures against Ireland and several other member states for failing to comply with their obligations under EU law in the field of consumer protection”.
The Government said after the statement was issued however that it had already transposed the consumer rights directive in question and had informally told the commission about this.
Ireland and the other EU states “now have two months to address the shortcomings identified by the Commission. In the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to refer them to the Court of Justice of the European Union,” the commission had said.
The commission sent a formal letter on the matter to Ireland, as well as Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg and Poland.
The 2020 directive concerned requires EU countries to allow designated consumer organisations and public bodies to bring traders to court on behalf of consumers if they use illegal practices.
If consumers have been harmed by an illegal commercial practice, they can seek compensation, replacement, or repair.
A spokesman for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment said on Friday that the Bill transposing the rules had been signed into law by President Higgins on July 11th.
“As such, Ireland has met its obligations and transposed the directive. The European Commission was notified of this development, informally, on Wednesday, 12th July,” he said. “The department will formally notify the commission in the coming days and expects that the infringement proceeding against Ireland will then be closed.”
At issue in the second instance of infringement procedures is the European Accessibility Act of 2019, which set out that key products and services such as phones, computers, ebooks, banking services, and electronic communications must be accessible to people with disabilities.
Businesses and services must comply with a set of EU accessibility standards by 2025 under the law.
The commission said in a statement that Ireland had yet to transpose the rules into national law and that it had failed to notify the executive on how this would be done.
It sent formal letters of notice to Ireland as well as Cyprus, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Poland over the issue, giving the countries two months “to respond and take the necessary measures” or else face being taken to the European Court of Justice.
A Government response on the second directive was sought.
