Part 6, Section 87 · Consumer Protection Act 2007

Contents

87Protections for persons reporting breaches.#

— (1) A person who, apart from this section, would be so liable shall not be liable in damages in respect of the communication, whether in writing or otherwise, by the person to the Agency of the person’s opinion that—

(a)an offence under any of the relevant statutory provisions has been or is being committed, or

(b)any of the relevant provisions that prohibits a person from doing a particular thing or things has not been or is not being complied with,unless it is proved that the person has not acted reasonably in forming that opinion and communicating it to the Agency.

(2)The reference in subsection (1) to liability in damages shall be construed as including a reference to liability to be the subject of an order providing for any other form of relief.

(2A)Subsection (1) does not apply to a communication that is a protected disclosure within the meaning of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014.

(3)An employer shall not penalise an employee for having formed an opinion of the kind referred to in subsection (1) and communicated it, whether in writing or otherwise, to the Agency if the employee has acted reasonably in forming that opinion and communicating it to the Agency.

(3A)Subsection (3) does not apply to a communication that is a protected disclosure within the meaning of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014.

(4)Schedule 6 shall have effect for the purposes of subsection (3).

(5)A person who states to the Agency that a person—

(a)has committed or is committing an offence under any of the relevant statutory provisions, or

(b)has failed or is failing to comply with any of the relevant statutory provisions,knowing that statement to be false commits an offence and is liable on conviction on indictment or on summary conviction, as the case may be, to the fines and penalties provided in Chapter 4 of Part 5.

(5A)Subsection (5) does not apply to the making of a statement that is a protected disclosure within the meaning of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014.

(6)Subsection (1) is in addition to, and not in substitution for, any privilege or defence available in legal proceedings, by virtue of any enactment or rule of law in force immediately before the commencement of this section, in respect of the communication by a person to another (whether that other person is the Agency or not) of an opinion of the kind referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (1).

Contains Revised Acts prepared by the Law Reform Commission (revisedacts.lawreform.ie): legislative text under the Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence, annotations under CC BY 4.0. Revised Acts are administrative consolidations, not authoritative.