55.— (1) A trader shall not engage in any of the following commercial practices:

(a) a representation that the trader has an approval, authorisation or endorsement that the trader does not have, or making such a representation when the trader is not in compliance with that approval, authorisation or endorsement;

(b) a representation that the trader is signatory to a code of practice, if the trader is not;

(c) a representation that the trader is about to cease trading or move premises, if the trader is not;

(d) a representation that a product has an approval, authorisation or endorsement that it does not have, or making such a representation when the trader is not in compliance with that approval, authorisation or endorsement;

(e) a representation that a product is able to facilitate winning in games of chance;

(f) a representation that supply of a product is legal, if it is not, or creating such an impression;

(g) a representation that a product is able to cure an illness, dysfunction or malformation, if it cannot;

(h) a representation that describes a product as “gratis”, “free”, “without charge” or anything similar, if a consumer has to pay anything other than the necessary and reasonable cost of—

(i) responding to the representation, and

(ii) collecting the product or having it delivered;

(i) a representation that a commercial practice of the trader has an approval, authorisation or endorsement that it does not have, or making such a representation when the trader is not in compliance with the approval, authorisation or endorsement;

(j) a representation that a code of practice has an approval or other endorsement that it does not have;

(k) displaying a quality, standard or trust mark or symbol, or some equivalent type of mark or symbol, without having obtained necessary authorisation to do so;

(l) making an invitation to purchase a product without disclosing the existence of any reasonable grounds the trader may have for believing that the trader will not be able to supply, or procure another trader to supply, the product or an equivalent product at the price specified in the invitation, or to do so for a reasonable period of time or in reasonable quantities, having regard to the scale of any marketing or advertising of the product and the price specified (bait advertising);

(m) making an invitation to purchase a product, then—

(i) demonstrating a defective sample of the product, or

(ii) refusing to—

(I) show or display the product to the consumer,

(II) take an order from the consumer for the product, or

(III) deliver the product to the consumer within a reasonable period of time,

with the intention of promoting a different product (bait and switch);

(n) making a false representation that a product is available only for a limited time, or on particular terms for a limited time, in order to elicit an immediate decision from a consumer, depriving the consumer of sufficient opportunity or time to make an informed choice in relation to the trader’s product;

F66[(o) undertaking to provide after-sales service to consumers with whom the trader has communicated prior to a transaction in a language which is not an official language of the relevant State in which the trader is located and then making such service available only in another language without clearly disclosing this to the consumer before the consumer is committed to the transaction;]

(p) making a representation or creating an impression that a right given to consumers under an enactment is a distinctive feature of the trader’s promotion or supply;

(q) using editorial content in the media to promote a product (if a trader has paid for that promotion) if it is not made clear that the promotion is a paid promotion, whether in the content itself or in any oral, written, visual or descriptive representation in the promotion;

F67[(qa) providing search results in response to a consumer’s online search query without clearly disclosing any paid advertisement or payment specifically for achieving higher ranking of products within the search results;]

(r) making a representation to a consumer that is materially inaccurate in respect of the nature and extent of risk to the consumer’s personal security, or that of other members of the consumer’s household, if the consumer does not purchase the trader’s product;

(s) promoting a product (similar to that of another manufacturer) in such a manner as to deliberately mislead or deceive a consumer into thinking that the product is manufactured by that manufacturer, when it is not;

(t) making a representation to a consumer that is inaccurate to a material degree in respect of market conditions, or in respect of the possibility of finding a product, with the intention of inducing the consumer to purchase a product at conditions less favourable than normal market conditions;

(u) operating, running or promoting a competition or prize promotion without awarding the prizes described or reasonable equivalents;

(v) making a representation or creating an impression that a consumer has won or will win a prize or other equivalent benefit, if—

(i) there is no prize or equivalent benefit, or

(ii) in claiming the prize, the consumer has to make a payment or incur a loss;

(w) including in marketing material an invoice or any similar document seeking payment from a consumer for a product that the consumer has not ordered;

(x) making a representation or creating an impression that the trader—

(i) is not acting for purposes related to the trader’s trade, business or profession, when the trader is so acting, or

(ii) is acting as a consumer, when the trader is not;

(y) making a representation or creating an impression that after-supply service in relation to a product is available in a relevant State other than the one in which the product is supplied, when it is not so available.

F67[(z) reselling event tickets to consumers if the trader acquired them by using automated means to circumvent any limit on the number of tickets that a person may buy or any other rules applicable to the purchase of tickets;

(za) stating that reviews of a product are submitted by consumers who have actually used or purchased the product without taking reasonable and proportionate steps to check that the reviews originate from such consumers;

(zb) submitting or commissioning a person to submit false reviews or endorsements by consumers, or misrepresenting reviews or social endorsements by consumers, in order to promote products.]

(2) F68[…]

(3) A trader shall not engage in any of the following commercial practices:

(a) making a representation or creating an impression that a consumer cannot leave the premises until a contract is formed;

(b) failing to comply with a consumer’s request to leave the consumer’s residence or to not return (except in circumstances and to the extent justified or permitted by or under law in order to enforce a contractual obligation);

(c) persistently failing to comply with a consumer’s request to cease—

(i) communicating or initiating unwanted or unsolicited contact with, or

(ii) making or sending unwanted or unsolicited representations to,

the consumer by telephone, fax, email or any other electronic means or remote media (except in circumstances and to the extent justified or permitted by or under law in order to enforce a contractual obligation);

(d) in relation to a consumer’s claim on an insurance policy, doing either or both of the following:

(i) requiring the consumer to produce documents irrelevant to the validity of the claim;

(ii) persistently failing to respond to the consumer’s correspondence on the matter, in order to dissuade the consumer from exercising contractual rights in respect of that claim;

(e) including in an advertisement a direct exhortation to children to—

(i) purchase a product, or

(ii) persuade a parent or adult to purchase the product for them;

(f) in relation to any product that a consumer does not solicit, demanding that the consumer—

(i) make immediate or deferred payment for the product, or

(ii) return or keep the product safe;

(g) explicitly informing a consumer that if the consumer does not purchase a product, the trader’s job or livelihood will be in jeopardy.

(4) Subsection (3)(f) does not apply in respect of a product provided by a trader in accordance with Regulation 9(3) of the European Communities (Protection of Consumers in Respect of Contracts Made by Means of Distance Communication) Regulations 2001 (S.I. No. 207 of 2001).