‘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:-

·  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 co-Director 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.