The European Consumer Centre (ECC) Ireland is a member of the European Consumer Centre Network (ECC-Net), which offers consumers across the European Union advice on their consumer rights and legal protections when shopping and travelling in another European Union (EU) Member State or European Economic Area (EEA) country. ECC-Net members cooperate closely to help settle complaints between consumers and businesses based in different EU countries, as well as in Norway, Iceland and the United Kingdom.
The European Consumer Centre Ireland (ECC Ireland) is one of the EU representations and agencies operating in Ireland and is co-funded by the European Commission Single Market Programme via its executive agency, the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) through the European Union Consumer Programme
The European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) activity report for 2022 here reveals the organisation’s legal experts in 29 offices across EU Members States and EEA countries have dealt with a total of 118,142 inquiries and consumer complaints from consumers all over Europe and assisted them in recovering €9,904,715 in consumer claims.
According to the European Consumer Centres Network’s complaints management system maintained by the European Commission, the European Consumer Centre Ireland received 1,665
Also in 2022, the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission’s “Statistics report on consumer contacts to the CCPC helpline 1 January – 31 December 2022” here, reveals that referrals to the European Consumer Centre Ireland were the second highest in 2022 among the top seven organisations to which Irish consumers were referred or signposted by the CCPC in 2022. The European Consumer Centre is the only organisation in Ireland that deals with cross-border consumer-trader disputes in the EU, EEA and UK. According to the CCPC report 2022, 8% of its consumer contacts were in connection with UK and EU consumer complaints.
The European Consumer Centre Ireland is at the forefront of the cooperation relationship with the now non-EU United Kingdom, represented by the UK International Consumer Centre, which supports consumers in cross-border complaints. In 2022, ECC Ireland’s parent organisation, the ECC-Net, recorded and handled 1,639 complaints raised by European consumers with UK traders; many of these originated with Irish consumers.
