Reforming Consumer Law in the Digital Market post-Brexit – An EU-UK-Irish Divide?

This chapter examines changes to consumer law in Ireland following the introduction of the Irish Consumer Rights Act 2022. This Act provides a vehicle to transpose the EU’s Omnibus Directive (2019/2161) (implementing the EU’s New Deal for Consumers) and bring into force the EU’s Digital Content and Digital Services (2019/770) and Sale of Goods (2019/771) Directives. It has also provided the Irish Government with the opportunity to undertake a major revision of its consumer law. It has been heralded as the most significant reform of consumer protection law in Ireland in decades. This chapter will compare the key provisions of the 2022 Act with UK consumer law in the shadow of Brexit, examining the UK’s Consumer Rights Act 2015 and Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. In so doing, it will reflect on change at EU level and where this leaves the relationship between England and Wales and Ireland as two fellow common law jurisdictions. It will argue that recent change has created a divide between these jurisdictions in the regulation of consumer contracts for goods and digital content and services but that informal convergence may nevertheless still occur, with the possibility of EU reforms inspiring positive change to UK consumer law.