Ticketmaster, Eir and Ryanair top consumer helpline list

The Small Claims Courts limits could be soon raised says cIreland's biggest consumer watchdog - the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission as it reveals what it did for us last year

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Top ten trader contacts	2024
Ticketmaster	614
Eir	604
Ryanair	554
Sky	498
Harvey Norman	446
Vodafone	429
Currys	401
Aer Lingus	340
Virgin Media	319
Lidl	278

Consumer contacts to CCPC in 2024

Consumers could soon see a massive increase in the financial limit on claims they will be able to pursue in the Small Claims Courts.

This was revealed by our main consumer watchdog after it released its 2024 Consumer Helpline report for world Consumer Rights Day (yesterday).

Over 44,247 consumers contacted the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission last year – over 5k more than in 2023.

Most issues involved costs averaging €6k – and most complaints (usually two thirds) were referred to the Small Claims Courts.

This is the only realistic legal recourse for consumers who don’t want to face potentially massive legal bills.

Yet, under current limits, the Small Claims Courts can  only deal with issues involving sums up to €2k – three times less than the average amount!

“If you look at home improvements where consumers are spending a lot of money, it's close to €10,000 and those consumers are excluded from using the Small Claims Court,” said Grainne Griffin, head of communications at the CCPC.

“We have raised this in the past with the minister and we did see a commitment in the Programme for Government that action will be taken.”

When pressed on how much the limits are likely to be raised to, Ms Griffin said:

“You'd have to look at what's appropriate in today's environment but also look to future proofing. I know when we looked in the past we had discussed a threshold of perhaps around €8000.”

“I know in one of the pre-election manifestos the figure of €10,000 was put out there so I think probably we're looking at that ballpark.”

Mr Griffin stressed that “there's a long road to go. Changing the rules of court is not a simple matter and it’ll take a lot of work from a lot of people.”

However, she added: “We are hopeful that we'll see action taken on that certainly within the course of this government but ideally soon sooner rather than later.”

So what else did we learn from this week’s Consumer Helpline report?

It was unusual to see Ticketmaster topping the list of ‘contacts’ (last year it didn’t even make the list).

But the furore over €500+ pricing of tickets for an Oasis concert seems to have catapulted Ticketmaster to the top with 614 contacts, pipping  the ‘usual suspects’ Eir (604) and Ryanair (554) neither of whom seem to enjoy a huge level of consumer confidence.

However, size and area of business are important to consider when analysing these results – and both Eir and Ryanair are in the consumer firing line (telecommunications and air travel).

Despite its much more positive public image, Aer Lingus (in 8th place) doesn’t exactly cover itself with glory either – as it flies fewer passengers in a year than Ryanair does in a month.

Sky is in fourth place. Again, no surprises here as telecommunications is a big cause of gripes.

But it’s fourth-place spot is five ahead of Virgin, which is in the same business, yet has more subscribers. So advantage Virgin.