Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Now, a Kerry retailer selling Irish-themed clothing has been fined for attaching Made in Ireland labels to jumpers that were actually made in Pakistan. The judge found yesterday that it was a deliberate attempt by Quill's Mullen Market to deceive buyers.
Well, to find out more about this now, I'm joined on the line by chairperson of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Brian McHugh. Brian, you're very welcome to the programme. Good morning to you.
Good morning.
It is your organisation, and people mightn't be aware of this, but it would be good to have it explained to us.
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Chapter 2: What incident led to the fine for Quills Woolen Market?
It's your organisation who leads the prosecution on this case, a case like this, right?
Yes, that's right. So under consumer law, businesses cannot provide misleading information to consumers. It's really important that consumers have the right information before they make their buying decision. And that information can include geographic origin, where the product is from.
So yesterday, as you said, we had a guilty plea from Quills Woolen Market, who operate a chain of gift shops in Kerry and Cork, for breaching consumer law. So it was our job to identify the issue and to prosecute it and to bring it to court. And yesterday we had the guilty plea and the conviction.
So you had complaints to your CCPC helpline about this. Is that where it all started?
Yes.
Yes, and that's where many of our cases start. So we get about 40,000 contacts from consumers every year. And one of those was in relation to complaints around Quiddal's woolen market and misleading information in relation to certain products. So it's really important that we get that information.
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Chapter 3: What role does the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission play?
And it's really important that consumers know that we do take action. So we carried out inspections on the back of those complaints in Killarney and in Kenmare, in those stores. And we found products which were labelled as made in Ireland. But clearly they weren't made in Ireland. They were made in Pakistan and they had the made in Pakistan labels removed.
So when we heard, sorry to interrupt you Brian, but we heard yesterday that there was evidence that the tags had been tampered with. That was the made in Pakistan label had been cut off, had it?
That's right, exactly. So the jumpers in question were made in Pakistan. They had those labels cut off and instead they were replaced with a Made in Ireland label.
Where did it say on the product Made in Ireland? Was it on the tag inside the jumper? Had they sewn something in or was it on the swing label?
It was on the Swing label. So Made in Ireland would have been attached. So for a consumer, you know, looking for a product, maybe wanting to bring it home. I think we all understand that people will want to bring home a product that was made in Ireland. It will mean more to them. So that is misleading.
It's misleading for the consumer who might buy the product and maybe pay more than they otherwise would have. And importantly, it's also misleading for other stores who are selling products which are actually made in Ireland, which may have a higher price. And it's not a level playing field for them who are trying to compete against other stores.
And then in addition, we also have businesses in Ireland who are making products in Ireland. And for them to be able to sell them, it's important that made in Ireland means something and consumers can trust that it is made in Ireland.
I mean, you'll often see, won't you, on Irish products, it'll say designed in Ireland and it might have an Irish theme or something that you might expect to be made in Ireland, but it'll say designed in Ireland and made wherever it's made, in this case in Pakistan. That's acceptable, is it?
Yeah, so there are different degrees in terms of what might be misleading to consumers. So in this case, and the reason we brought it for prosecution, it was such a clear case of misleading. And I mean, as you noted, the judge concluded it was a deliberate attempt to deceive buyers.
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Chapter 4: How did consumer complaints initiate the investigation?
And often, as you mentioned, the reason that we're there is we have had consumer complaints about potential breaches of the law. So it's a really important driver of our inspection activity.
How many cases like this do you take in an average year? Do you have a figure on it?
So again, we carry out hundreds of inspections, and on the back of that we would carry out a large number of enforcement actions. That can range from fixed payment notices to compliance notices, right up to prosecutions. So we might take up to, it depends on the year, up to 10 prosecutions in any year.
So recently, you may be aware we've had prosecutions against Tesco's, against Boots, against Brown Thomas, Lifestyle Sports. And yesterday we had the prosecution against Quills. So we're very active in the area and we're very reliant on consumer contacts. So we really do encourage them.
So given what you've said there, there are a number of steps that happen before you get to a point where you're levelling a prosecution.
Oh, absolutely. So in many, many of the inspections we do, it results in a different enforcement outcome other than a prosecution. But obviously for a prosecution that goes before court, there's a significant amount of due process. The parties need the opportunity to provide their side of the story. The evidence needs to be collected and presented in a fair way to the court.
So it can take some time, understandably, to make sure that that process is fair before it gets to court and before it is a decision of the courts.
Now, the decision of the court included a fine yesterday of €500 and there was an order to pay costs of the CCPC or to contribute to them €1,000. It's very low, isn't it, the fine? Would you like to see higher fines attached to an offence like this?
I mean, what I would say is that generally the system that's in place where a prosecution goes in front of the district court and the prosecution is around a specific item. So the two jumpers in this case. So, you know, we understand how the outcome in this case can be a 500 euro fine.
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Chapter 5: What evidence was found regarding the misleading labels?
But of course, there's the reputational damage as well. You know, we're talking about Quill's woolen market here started in the news yesterday and still going today. So that has to be a factor in all of this too.
No, absolutely. In this case, I do think that reputational impact is important. I do think a deterrent effect is important. So any businesses today who might have similar pricing practices should really be looking at their store and making sure consumers are not misled because we will be out there and we will be looking and where necessary, we will prosecute.
Brian, good to talk to you. Thank you very much for telling us about that case yesterday. Brian McHugh there, Chair of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
The Clare Byrne Show. With Aviva Insurance. Weekday mornings at 9. On Newstalk. Conversation that counts.