{"id":294394,"date":"2026-01-20T18:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/294394\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T18:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:44:08","slug":"consumers-may-have-overpaid-for-household-appliances-ccpc-says-as-it-investigates-stores-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/294394\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumers may have overpaid for household appliances, CCPC says as it investigates stores \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Irish consumers may have paid over the odds for electric appliances sold by multiple retailers due to a possible pricing deal with a supplier that is under investigation by the competition watchdog.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/competition-and-consumer-protection-commission-ccpc\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/competition-and-consumer-protection-commission-ccpc\/\">Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC)<\/a> investigation relates to a so-called \u201cresale price maintenance arrangement\u201d between a manufacturer, a distributor and multiple retailers operating in Ireland. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Resale price maintenance occurs when a supplier seeks to control the price at which a product is resold, potentially restricting competition and harming consumers. The agreement may specify a fixed or minimum resale price or a specified minimum margin, decided by the supplier. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">If resellers are not able to sell at a lower price, should they wish to, it restricts businesses from competing properly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">As part of its investigation, the CCPC conducted an unannounced inspection at a premises of an Irish-based distributor in June last year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In collaboration with the German Competition Authority (Bundeskartellamt), an unannounced inspection was also carried out at the premises of a manufacturer located in Germany in November 2025. CCPC authorised officers supported their German counterparts during this operation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">EU and Irish law allow a competition authority of one member state request the competition authority of another member state to carry out an inspection or other fact-finding measure on its territory on its behalf. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The CCPC has also made formal requests for information to several retailers active in Ireland. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The investigation is being carried out under the CCPC\u2019s enhanced competition law enforcement powers, which came into effect in September 2023. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Under the 2023 administrative enforcement regime, independent adjudication officers of the CCPC may impose financial sanctions on a business which has been found to have breached competition law. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The CCPC has encouraged anyone with relevant information to contact its antitrust division and had highlighted a leniency arrangement that can see reductions in fines for those who reveal their involvement in resale price maintenance and who fully cooperate with a CCPC investigation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cAs the investigation is ongoing, no further details are available at this time,\u201d the CCPC said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish consumers may have paid over the odds for electric appliances sold by multiple retailers due to a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,7771,18,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-294394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-competition-and-consumer-protection-commission-ccpc","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115928908727356641","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}