Ryanair, Eir and Sky were the companies most complained about in the first half of 2025 while Ticketmaster saw its ranking with Ireland’s consumer watchdog improve as concerns over high-priced Oasis tickets last September faded away.
Faulty goods, poor online shopping experiences and botched home improvements topped the list of issues raised with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), with the average amount of money at stake put at well in excess of €6,000, a report published on Tuesday suggests.
A total of 20,526 people contacted the CCPC between January and the end of June, mostly by phone, email and web. Vehicles and transport led the list of sectors complained about.
The average spend on the products and services people had issues with was put at €6,400.
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Ryanair finished at the top of the contact chart with 319 complaints, followed by Eir on 241 and Sky on 219. Other firms in the top 10 were Currys, Harvey Norman, Aer Lingus, Vodafone, Lidl, Ticketmaster, DID Electrical and Love Holidays.
The commission’s last report, published in January, put Ticketmaster far ahead of the chasing pack with over 600 complaints recorded over the course of 2024. This was largely related to anger at the dynamic ticket pricing model used for last weekend’s Oasis concerts in Croke Park.
By contrast, the operator only attracted 117 complaints in the first six months of this year.
Consumers contacted the CCPC helpline about goods and services with a reported total value of €56 million. The highest average spend was on vehicles and transport, at €18,716, followed by home building and improvements where the average spend was €13,443.
Just under 4,500 consumers contacted the helpline about an online purchase, with 17 per cent of purchases coming from businesses outside of the EU – an increase of 9 per cent compared with the same period in 2024.
“Consumer contacts to our helpline are vital in directing our work, particularly in enforcement,” said the CCPC’s director of communication Grainne Griffin. “The information provided by consumers helps us to identify rogue traders, patterns of potential law breaking and means we can target our resources for maximum impact.”
She noted that “unannounced inspections by CCPC officers, often backed by intelligence gathered from our helpline, have uncovered consumer law breaches in shops, pubs, restaurants and car dealerships around Ireland”.
Ms Griffin pointed out that buying a car or a home “are two of life’s most significant financial decisions [and] making the wrong choice can be very expensive”.
She reiterated the CCPC’s call for the establishment of a State-backed online car history portal. “This would allow consumers to check important information about a car’s mileage, past accidents, safety recalls and import status before buying a used car. She added: “recently, we also called for more transparency in the home-buying process. Our home-buyers report called for the necessary information about a property to be made more accessible and be made available earlier in the home-buying process.”
Ms Griffin noted an uptick in consumers contacting the CCPC about online purchases from outside the EU. ”We recommend buying from businesses based in Ireland or other EU countries, where your consumer rights are strong,” she said.
She stressed that bargains displayed on websites can often end up being illusory.
“If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Consumers should be very cautious of exclusively five-star reviews or amazing deals that are out of step with other suppliers. Always do your research and if you spot a red flag, better to spend your money elsewhere.”
