New Chair of Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission: Brian McHugh appointed as Chair
On 15 September 2023, it was announced that Brian McHugh had been appointed as the new Chair of Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC).
Mr McHugh has served as a member of the CCPC since 2017. He is responsible for competition enforcement and mergers, policy research and international affairs.
On his appointment as CCPC Chair, Mr McHugh said: “A major priority for the Commission in the months ahead will be to utilise the CCPC’s new legal powers to tackle head-on those businesses practices which are causing major consumer detriment and damaging competition.” In this context, he was referring to the Competition (Amendment) Act 2022, which implements the ECN+ Directive and enhances the powers of the CCPC in various ways.
Mr McHugh also said that “a key area of focus for the CCPC is strengthening our work in detecting bid-rigging, protecting the taxpayer’s annual procurement budget of €18.5 billion and utilising these new powers to investigate more competition law breaches including price fixing and abusive behaviour by dominant firms.”
Linking these practices to the current inflation and cost of living crisis, Mr McHugh said that “many of these practices directly or indirectly result in increased prices, a reduction in quality, or innovation, which affects consumers and other businesses and adds to the cost-of-living pressure.”
The CCPC deals with consumer and competition matters. In the context of consumer protection, the new chairperson said that a “further priority for the CCPC in the months ahead is to continue our work in ensuring that large traders uphold consumers’ new rights under the Consumer Rights Act [2022] and comply with the rules around pricing under the Price Indication Directive.” He also said that “alongside this we will be preparing to enforce new product safety laws and supporting the development and implementation of domestic and EU legislation relating to the digital economy”.
Mr McHugh holds a BA degree in economics from Trinity College Dublin and an MSc in energy economics from the University of Surrey. He has over 20 years of experience in the public sector, including 15 years in Northern Ireland’s Utility Regulator.
Mr McHugh is the third chair of the CCPC. He succeeds Isolde Goggin, who served between 2014-2021 before retiring after a distinguished career in the public service and Jeremy Godfrey, who served as CCPC Chair between January 2022 and February 2023 before becoming Chair of Coimisiún na Meán, which is Ireland’s media commission.
The announcement of Mr Hugh’s appointment as CCPC Chair coincided with news on the same day of the entry into force of most of the 2022 Act on 27 September 2023 and which heralds a new era in the CCPC, so it is both an interesting and an exciting time to take over as Chair of the CCPC.
For more information on this post, please contact Dr Vincent Power, Partner or any member of A&L Goodbody's EU, Competition & Procurement team.
Date published: 22 September 2023