Watchdog lobbies for consumer group court move

CONSUMER watchdogs want to change Irish law so consumers can jointly take on big companies in the courts for the first time.

Yesterday, the Consumers’ Association of Ireland also unveiled a plan to campaign for the abolition of DIRT tax on savings, which the CAI said was a tax on people on low incomes.

The CAI’s annual meeting at Dublin’s Mansion House was told that the association planned to campaign at European Union level to allow Irish courts to hear “group actions”.

Commonly known as “class actions” in the US, such cases mean consumers can band together to seek legal dress instead of having to go to court individually as at present.

Outlining the CAI’s campaign yesterday, chief executive Dermott Jewell said “group actions” would be a huge tool to improve consumer rights in Ireland.

“There was a case recently where the Financial Ombudsman found Quinn Direct had charged a customer by €25 for changing their policy. The ombudsman ordered Quinn to refund every customer the €25. Quinn Direct appealed to the High Court and won, basically meaning, unfortunately, that the ombudsman now has to make a case for each €25 individually.”

Delegates were told the EU consumer policy commissioner Meglena Kuneva was determined to introduce changes to allow group actions.

“Group action is being slowly taken up at EU level and trying to bring it in to every member state is not going to be easy,” said Mr Jewell.

Group actions would mean the CAI could bring a court case on behalf of the public and then share out the compensation whether claimants had signed up to the court case or not.

“Group actions do require a dedicated [consumer] organisation to be put in place,” he said.

“Hopefully we would be in a position but this will require significant funding resources.

“The important thing is that we are at the frontline and heavily involved at EU level.”

Mr Jewell said the CAI would launch a campaign in 2008 to abolish the 20% DIRT tax on savings interest after the levy was described as a tax on those unable to afford an SSIA over the past five years.

Members questioned whether the CAI should be campaigning on taxation but chairman Michael Kilcoyne said: “We campaign on a whole range of issues and DIRT is a tax that affects those on low incomes.”

* www.thecai.ie. Better rights

THE Consumers’ Association of Ireland (CAI) unveiled a get-tough approach to what it said were the country’s “wishy-washy” consumer rights.

Chairman Michael Kilcoyne said he wanted to see a separate Government department of consumer affairs.

“Currently the same minister is responsible for both employers’ legislation as well as consumers’ legislation.”

He said he also wanted to see greater protection for consumers who have complaints about lawyers.