‘THE NEW CONSUMER PROTECTION REGIME, PRODUCT
LIABILITY AND ASPECTS OF CONSUMER CONTRACTS’
Organised by the Irish Centre for European Law
Sponsored by the National Consumer Agency
PROGRAMME
Monday, 14 April 2008, 10am-5pm
Royal Irish Academy, Dublin
This significant conference facilitates practitioners working in Commercial, Contract,
and Tort Law to gain familiarity with the new regime and key management personnel
to properly implement compliance programmes.
Drawing on leading Irish and European expertise this conference:
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Provides an overview and practical analysis of the ground-breaking Consumer
Protection Act 2007.
Provides analysis of the European background to the 2007 Act together with a
comparative common law perspective.
Overviews, analyses, and updates delegates as to the Product Liability regime.
Overviews, analyses, and updates delegates as to aspects of Consumer Contracts
namely: Electronic Contracts, Distance Selling, Air Travel and Package Holiday
Law and the protections for consumer buyers of goods.
10am
REGISTRATION
10.25am
Welcome from Andrew Beck B.L., Director ICEL
FIRST PANEL Chair: John Shine, Director of Commercial Practices,
National Consumer Agency
The New Consumer Protection Regime
10.30am
Address from the Chair: John Shine, Director of Commercial
Practices, National Consumer Agency
The Consumer Protection Act 2007: An Overview and Commentary
Abstract: This presentation provides an overview of the Consumer
Protection Act 2007 and considers practical implications for businesses
and consumers.
11am
Andrew Beck B.L., Director ICEL
The Consumer Protection Act 2007: The European Background
Abstract: This presentation examines the Unfair Commercial Practices
Directive which is implemented into Irish law by the Consumer
Protection Act 2007. Major themes of the Unfair Commercial Practices
Directive are considered including its dual consumer protection and
internal market objectives; maximum harmonisation; the scope of the
Directive, and use of the general clause.
11.30am
Professor Geraint Howells, Lancaster University
Consumer Protection in the United Kingdom and observations on the
Irish model.
Abstract: Implementing the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive
presents the greatest challenge to common law jurisdictions. This
presentation provides the comparative perspective of Consumer
Protection in the UK. It looks at the policy choices the UK government
made in terms of enforcement and the respective roles of criminal and
civil law and the issues that gave rise to concern during implementation
and how they were resolved. Some brief comparative reflections on the
position in Ireland will be attempted.
12noon
Paul Keane, Principal, Reddy Charlton McKnight Solicitors
The Consumer Protection Act 2007: Challenges and implications for
businesses and legal practitioners.
Abstract: This presentation analyses the challenges and implications for
legal practitioners presented by the Consumer Protection Act focusing
upon civil proceedings and prosecutions.
12.30
Q&A
1pm
LUNCH BREAK (Lunch provided in private room in Ron Blacks, Dawson
Street.)
SECOND PANEL Chair: Professor Robert Clark, University College
Dublin
Product Liability and Aspects of Consumer Contracts I
2pm
Professor William Binchy, Regius Professor of Laws, Trinity College,
Dublin
Recent Developments in Product Liability Law and Practice
Abstract: This presentation overviews, analyses, and updates delegates as
to the Product Liability regime.
2.30pm
Alex Schuster, Trinity College Dublin
Recent Developments in Air Travel and Package Holiday Law
Abstract: This presentation treats recent developments in Air Travel and
Package Holiday Law. In particular, in the wake of the Supreme Court
decision in Scaife v. Falcon Leisure Group this presentation examines the
legal duty imposed on tour operators in respect of the safety of packages
they sell.
3pm
Q&A
3.15pm
REFRESHMENT BREAK (Tea and Coffee provided in private room in
Ron Blacks, Dawson Street.)
THIRD PANEL Chair: Professor Robert Clark, University College
Dublin
Aspects of Consumer Contracts II
3.45pm
Professor Colin Scott, University College Dublin
Electronic Contracts and Distance Selling: Overview and Recent
Developments
Abstract: Consumers engaging in online transactions exhibit particular
vulnerabilities which are different from the bricks and mortar world. This
presentation will examine and evaluate the variety of mechanisms
available to protect consumers, including compulsory disclosure and
cooling-off periods and other initiatives such as information campaigns
and reputation-based mechanisms developed by businesses and trade
associations.
4.15pm
Fidelma White, University College Cork
Consumer Sales: exploring the boundaries of liability for quality defects
Abstract: This presentation examines the current regime for the protection
of consumer buyers of goods under the Sale of Goods Acts 1893-1980
and the Consumer Sales Regulations 2003, and explores the issue of
direct producer liability for quality defects.
4.45pm
Q&A
5pm
CONFERENCE CLOSES
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
John Shine is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin (B. Sc. Computer Science).
Following a number of years working as a systems analyst on a wide range of IT projects
in the Dept. of Finance, he spent 10 years in the Dept. of Enterprise, Trade and
Employment in a variety of roles, covering industrial policy, internal and structural funds
audit and EU co-ordination. He has been working in the consumer area since early 2006,
initially with the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs. As Director of Commercial
Practices, he is responsible for the National Consumer Agency’s enforcement of a wide
range of consumer legislation.
Andrew Beck B.L. is a practising barrister (called 2001) and Director of the Irish Centre
for European Law. He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Oxford University
(Magister Juris in European and Comparative Law) and The King’s Inns. At the King’s
Inns he was placed highest in the subject of Advocacy, Legal Drafting and Negotiation
and awarded a Bar Council Bursary. Andrew Beck has advised on a range of EU Law
issues including the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and the Consumer Protection
Act 2007.
Geraint Howells is Professor of Law at Lancaster University. He has written widely on
consumer law issues (his books include Comparative Product Liability, Consumer
Product Safety, Consumer Protection Law, EC Consumer Law and Product Liability) and
he has also written numerous articles and contributions to books. His work often has an
EC, international or comparative flavour. He frequently acts as consultant for
organisations such as the European Commission, DTI and NCC and is a member of the
European Consumer Law Group. He has been editor of the Consumer Law Journal, the
Revue Européene de Droit de la Consommation, European Business Law Library and is
currently editor of the markets and law series for Ashgate publishers. He has also taught
at the Universities of Hull, Keele, Liverpool and Sheffield in the United Kingdom and
overseas he has visited the Universities of Tennessee, Würzburg, Münster, Paris XI and
Sydney.
Paul Keane is managing partner of Reddy Charlton Mc Knight, a business law firm in
Dublin. His main areas of interest are corporate/commercial law and taxation. Paul is a
member of the Law Society’s Business Law Committee and has served as chairman of
both the Tax & Probate Committee and the Commercial Law Committee of the Dublin
Solicitors Bar Association. He serves as the Law Society’s representative to the network
of experts considering a common frame of reference for European Contract Law being
developed by the EU.
Robert Clark is an Associate Professor of Law in UCD. He is a consultant in the
Technology and Life Sciences Practice Group to Arthur Cox, London and Dublin, and
has published widely in the areas of contract, information technology, intellectual
property and social welfare law. He is the editor of Irish Current Law Statutes Annotated
(Thomson).
William Binchy is Regius Professor of Laws and Head of the Law School at Trinity
College Dublin. He is author of Irish Conflicts of Law (1988) and co-author, with Bryan
McMahon, of Irish Law of Torts (2000).
Alex Schuster is a practising barrister and a lecturer in law at Trinity College, Dublin. He
specialises in subjects with a commercial flavour, including Consumer law, Competition
law and European Product Liability law, three of the courses he lectures on the Trinity
LL.M. Programme. He is co-author of Sport and the Law (2004), the first book ever
written on legal aspects of the sports industry in Ireland. Alex Schuster is a member of
the Board of the National Consumer Agency. He is also the Irish representative on the
Brussels-based European Consumer Law Forum.
Colin Scott is Professor of EU Regulation and Governance at UCD School of Law,
Professor of Law at the College of Europe, Bruges, Vice Principal for Research and
Innovation, UCD College of Business and Law and an Associate of both the ESRC
Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation at the London School of Economics and the
UCD Dublin European Institute. His main fields of research are in consumer protection,
communications regulation and public management. He teaches courses in regulatory
governance, consumer law and research methods at UCD and Law and Economics of
Competition and Regulation at Bruges. He has served in a variety of roles on the Editorial
Board of the Modern Law Review and is currently co-editor of the international
interdisciplinary journal Law and Policy.
Fidelma White is a Senior Lecturer in Law at University College Cork, where she is coDirector of the eLaw Summer Institute. Her main research interests relate to commercial
and consumer law: her book Commercial Law was published by Thomson Round Hall, in
2002. She teaches courses on commercial law and e-commerce law. She has participated
in a variety of European projects and is currently the national correspondent for Ireland
on the EU Consumer Law Compendium project which formed the basis for the on-going
review of the consumer acquis.