Brian McHugh

The CCPC intervention followed consumer complaints to its helpline about pricing during ‘flash sales’ for car park spaces at the airport in March and May 2025.

Under the Consumer Protection Act 2007, it is against the law to provide incorrect or misleading information to consumers about price promotions.

The flash sales advertised car parking at a promotional rate of €10 or €12 per day.

However, in some cases, airport car parking was priced at a lower rate in advance of and after the promotion. Consumers who bought promotional parking in these cases were charged more during the sales promotion.

In total, consumers were overcharged by just over €25,000. daa has informed the CCPC that the overpayments were the result of an error on its part and affected consumers will now be refunded by daa.

daa has voluntarily committed to refunding consumers the full cost of their booking, resulting in a total of €350,000 being returned to consumers. Refunds will be issued directly to consumers within the next five to 10 days.

CCPC chair Brian McHugh said: “We welcome the swift action taken by daa following contact from the CCPC alerting it to potential breaches of consumer protection laws.

“The CCPC was able to take this action thanks to consumers who took the time to report concerns about misleading sales pricing. All calls to the CCPC helpline are screened for potential breaches of consumer protection law and drive our enforcement and compliance activities.

“The flash sales coincided with the addition of a new competitor in the airport car park market. Active competition among businesses is vital to drive choice, better service and innovation. However, any promotions need to be grounded in real benefits to consumers.”